Menopausal asthma: a new biological phenotype?
Allergy
; 65(10): 1306-12, 2010 Oct.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-20557302
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Female hormones play an important role in women's lung health, especially in asthma pathophysiology. Although a growing interest has recently been aroused in asthma related to short-term reproductive states, menopausal asthma has been little studied in the past. The aim of the present study was to explore airway inflammation in menopausal asthmatic women in a noninvasive manner.METHODS:
Forty consecutive women with menopausal asthma, 35 consecutive women with premenopausal asthma and 30 age-matched healthy controls were enrolled in the study. Urinary LTE-4, induced sputum inflammatory cells, and exhaled LTE-4, IL-6, pH, and NO levels were measured in all the subjects enrolled.RESULTS:
Women with menopausal asthma showed decreased estradiol concentrations, high sputum neutrophils, and exhaled IL-6. Women with premenopausal asthma presented instead an essentially eosinophilic inflammatory pattern. Higher urine and breath condensate LTE-4 concentrations were found in premenopausal and menopausal asthma compared to controls.CONCLUSION:
Our results substantiate the existence of a new biological phenotype of menopausal asthma that is mainly characterized by neutrophilic airways inflammation and shares several characteristics of the severe asthma phenotype.
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Asma
/
Menopausa
Tipo de estudo:
Observational_studies
Limite:
Female
/
Humans
/
Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Allergy
Ano de publicação:
2010
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Itália