Nasal lavage, blood or sputum: Which is best for phenotyping asthma?

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Determination of asthma phenotypes, particularly inflammatory phenotypes, helps guide treatment and management of this heterogeneous disease. Induced sputum cytology has been the gold standard for determination of inflammatory phenotypes, but sputum induction is fairly invasive and technically challenging. Blood and nasal lavage cytology have been suggested as substitutes, but have not been fully verified. The aim of this study is to determine the accuracy of blood and nasal lavage cytometry as indicators of inflammatory phenotypes in asthma. METHODS: Clinical evaluation, Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) and spirometry were performed for 121 adult asthma patients, and blood, nasal lavage and induced sputum samples were taken. Eosinophils and neutrophils were counted in three samples from each subject. Inflammatory phenotypes (eosinophilic, neutrophilic, mixed and paucicellular) and cells counts were analysed using Venn diagram and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, respectively. RESULTS: ACQ score, spirometry and bronchodilator response did not differ among subjects with different inflammatory phenotypes. Inflammatory phenotypes defined by nasal lavage cytometry were in better concordance than those defined by blood cell counts with phenotypes determined by sputum cytology, and were significantly correlated with sputum phenotypes. For eosinophilia, nasal lavage cytology showed better accuracy than blood cytology (area under the curve (AUC): 0.89 vs 0.65). For all phenotypes, sensitivity and positive and negative predictive power were higher for nasal lavage cytometry than for blood. Blood cell counts gave a high level of false positives for all inflammatory phenotypes. CONCLUSION: We recommend nasal lavage cytology over blood cell count as a substitute for sputum cytology to identify inflammatory phenotypes in asthma.

Internet Use for Health-Care Information by Subjects With COPD.

BACKGROUND: Although the internet is an important tool for entertainment, work, learning, shopping, and communication, it is also a possible source for information on health and disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the proportion of subjects with COPD in São Paulo, Brazil, who use the internet to obtain information about their disease. METHODS: Subjects (N = 382) with COPD answered a 17-question survey, including information regarding computer use, internet access, and searching for sites on COPD. Our sample was distributed according to the socioeconomic levels of the Brazilian population (low, 17.8%; medium, 66.5%; and high, 15.7%). RESULTS: Most of the subjects in the sample were male (62.6%), with a mean age of 67.0 ± 9.9 y. According to Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) stages, 74.3% of the subjects were in stage II or III. In addition, 51.6% of the subjects had a computer, 49.7% accessed the internet, and 13.9% used it to search for information about COPD. The internet was predominantly accessed by male (70.3%) and younger (64.6 ± 9.5 y of age) subjects compared with female (29.7%, P = .04) and older (67.5 ± 9.6 y of age, P < .007) subjects. Searching for information about COPD on the internet was associated with having a computer (5.9-fold), Medical Research Council dyspnea level 1 (5.3-fold), and high social class (8.4-fold). The search for information on COPD was not influenced by GOLD staging. CONCLUSIONS: A low percentage of subjects with COPD in São Paulo use the internet as a tool to obtain information about their disease. This search is associated with having a computer, low dyspnea score, and high socioeconomic level.

Hipercalcemia no câncer de pulmäo: consideraçöes sobre prevalência, diagnóstico e etiopatogenia / Hypercalcemia in the lung cancer: considerations about prevalence, diagnosis and etiopathogeny

Hipercalcemia é uma complicaçao freqüente em pacientes portadores de câncer de pulmao. O diagnóstico e tratamento precoces da hipercalcemia melhoram o prognóstico destes pacientes. Estudamos 79 pacientes ambulatoriais (59 homens e 20 mulheres) com idades variando entre 30 e 84 anos (mediana de 63 anos), todos com diagnóstico histológico de câncer de pulmao (46,8 por cento carcinoma espinocelular, 37,9 por cento adenocarcinoma e 12 por cento com outros tipos celulares). Dez pacientes (12,6 por cento) encontravam-se hipercalcêmicos (Ca++ maior que 1,29 mmol/L), com variaçao de 1,30 a 1,59 mmol/L. Dois deles (25 por cento) apresentavam níveis elevados de PTHrp (porçao média, RIA) e AMPc, com PTH suprimido; um apresentou associaçao com hiperparatiroidismo primário e quatro tiveram cintilografia positiva para metástases ósseas. Em três pacientes hipercalcêmicos o mecanismo patogênico da hipercalcemia nao foi associado com a presença de metástases ósseas, aumento dos níveis de PTHrp ou PTH. Concluímos que hipercalcemia é uma complicaçao freqüente em pacientes com câncer de pulmao, sendo sua fisiopatogenia heterogênea.