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Do eosinophil counts correlate differently with asthma severity by symptoms versus peak flow rate?
1Department of Internal Medicine, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Summary
Total peripheral eosinophil count (TPEC) may help assess asthma severity. This study found TPEC correlated better with symptom-based severity than with peak flow rate (PFR) assessments.
Area of Science:
- Pulmonology
- Allergy and Immunology
- Clinical Diagnostics
Background:
- Asthma assessment often shows discrepancies between patient-reported symptoms and objective peak flow rate (PFR) measurements.
- Total peripheral eosinophil count (TPEC) is being investigated as a potential objective marker for asthma evaluation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the correlation between TPEC and asthma severity.
- To compare asthma severity assessment using symptoms alone versus symptoms combined with PFR.
Main Methods:
- Adult asthma patients were categorized by severity using two methods: symptoms alone, or symptoms plus PFR.
- Expiratory PFR was measured using a Wright peak flow meter.
- Total peripheral eosinophil count (TPEC) was determined using a Celldyn-3500 counter.
Main Results:
- A significant portion (45%) of patients had differing severity classifications between the two assessment methods.
- Eosinophilia (TPEC > 500 cells/mm3) was present in 50% of the study participants.
- TPEC demonstrated a stronger positive correlation with symptom-based asthma severity (r = 0.460, P < .001) compared to severity assessed by symptoms and PFR (r = 0.328, P < .05).
Conclusions:
- The study confirms discrepancies in asthma severity assessment between symptom-based and PFR-based evaluations.
- TPEC emerged as a potentially valuable objective parameter for asthma severity assessment.
- Supplementing current methods with TPEC may improve the accuracy of asthma severity classification.
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