Mechanisms of asthma and allergic inflammationShort and long-term effects of cigarette smoking independently influence exhaled nitric oxide concentration in asthma
Section snippets
Subjects
Fifty-three subjects with asthma (23 nonsmokers, 17 smokers, and 13 exsmokers) and 51 healthy subjects (20 nonsmokers, 20 smokers, and 11 exsmokers) were recruited from respiratory outpatient clinics and hospital staff, respectively. The diagnosis of asthma was based on the American Thoracic Society (ATS) criteria.11 Patients had not received oral corticosteroids in the past 4 weeks, and none had a history of a respiratory tract infection within the preceding 4 weeks. Current treatment included
Results
The number, sex, age, serum IgE level, atopic status, and FEV1 in the asthma and healthy control study groups, along with the inhaled corticosteroid use, asthma duration, and ATS asthma score of the asthma subjects, are listed in Table I according to smoking history. There were no significant age differences. The asthma group had significantly reduced lung function measured by the percent of predicted FEV1 (P < .001) and significantly higher IgE levels (P < .001) and atopy (χ2 = 23.6; P < .001)
Discussion
In this cross-sectional study, we have demonstrated coincidental short and long-term effects of cigarette smoking on the measurement of NO concentration in exhaled breath. These effects were independent and could be modeled mathematically.
We found that the FeNO was reduced in smokers with and without asthma compared with their nonsmoking counterparts, which is in agreement with other studies.4, 8, 9, 15, 16 We extended these observations by confirming a decrease in FeNO with increasing years
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Ms. Fraser is supported by a research grant from the British National Flying Club.
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: All authors—none disclosed.