Unicode SystemsNitric oxide monitoring not helpful for most asthmatic children
According to results reported in the second issue for January of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, a publication of the American Thoracic Society, the level of nitric oxide in the exhaled breath of an asthmatic can portent worsening of asthma symptoms.
It was also revealed that such a situation may also signify an imminent attack that gets linked with an underlying airway inflammation.
From News-Medical.Net:
Johan C. de Jongste, M.D., Ph.D., at the Erasmus University Medical Center-Sophia Children’s Hospital in the Netherlands, and colleagues randomized 151 children from 15 academic centers and hospitals with mild to moderate asthma to a 30-week monitoring course. Families were called every three weeks and reported on the daily symptoms in the prior three weeks. The child’s medication was adjusted accordingly.
The researchers compared the rates of exacerbation, symptoms, use of medications and other endpoints between the last 12 weeks in the two groups. There were no significant differences whether or not FENO had been part of the daily monitoring. However, both groups enjoyed an impressive overall improvement in symptoms, despite a reduction of about 50 percent in inhaled steroid dose, suggesting considerable benefit of frequent monitoring.
“We speculate that daily supervision and frequent phone contacts have produced an improvement that could not be beaten by additional monitoring of FENO, most likely because of a ceiling effect on compliance,” wrote Dr. de Jongste.
These findings have made the monitoring of nitric oxide of significant interest, particularly in children, as a potential way in helping clinicians when it comes to improving treatment results.
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Tags: asthma, asthma symptoms, asthmatic, moderate asthma, nitric oxide, steroids