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Eosinophil cationic protein in peripheral blood of pediatric patients with allergic diseases
T Sugai1, Y Sakiyama, S Matumoto
1Department of Pediatrics, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
Insights
Eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) levels in children with asthma and atopic dermatitis are significantly higher than in controls. ECP is a more useful marker than eosinophil counts for assessing treatment efficacy in pediatric allergic diseases.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Allergy and Immunology
- Biomarker Discovery
- Inflammatory Diseases
Background:
- Allergic diseases like asthma and atopic dermatitis involve eosinophil activation.
- Accurate biomarkers are needed to monitor disease activity and treatment effectiveness in children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the levels of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in children with bronchial asthma and atopic dermatitis.
- To evaluate ECP as a potential biomarker for disease activity and treatment response.
Main Methods:
- Measured serum ECP and TNF levels in 68 children with asthma and 11 with atopic dermatitis.
- Compared levels to healthy controls and analyzed correlations with eosinophil counts, IgE, and clinical outcomes.
- Assessed changes in ECP levels following treatment.
Main Results:
- Significantly elevated ECP levels were found in children with asthma and atopic dermatitis compared to controls.
- A strong correlation was observed between serum ECP and blood eosinophil counts.
- ECP levels decreased with treatment, correlating with fewer asthma attacks and improved lung function, independent of IgE levels.
- TNF levels did not show significant differences between groups.
Conclusions:
- Serum ECP levels are a valuable indicator of eosinophil activity in pediatric allergic diseases.
- ECP is a more sensitive marker than eosinophil counts for assessing disease activity and treatment efficacy in children.
- ECP monitoring can aid in clinical management and treatment evaluation for pediatric asthma and atopic dermatitis.
Abstract:
We have studied the levels of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) and tumour necrosis factor (TNF) in peripheral blood obtained from 68 children with bronchial asthma and 11 children with atopic dermatitis. The ECP mean concentrations of the patients were 23.7 +/- 21.4 micrograms/l and 21.2 +/- 18.7 micrograms/l for bronchial asthma and atopic dermatitis respectively, which were significantly higher than the control value, 5.8 +/- 2.3 micrograms/l (P less than 0.005). TNF was unmeasurable in almost all the samples and no significant difference was observed between normal controls and asthmatic children. A significant correlation was observed between serum levels of ECP and blood eosinophil counts in both diseases (r = 0.873; P less than 0.01 and r = 0.740; P less than 0.01, respectively). However, no obvious correlation was observed between serum levels of ECP and IgE levels. ECP levels were significantly reduced by treatment and normalized in parallel with blood eosinophil counts in the patients with total IgE levels less than 800 U/ml. Irrespective of the total IgE levels, the reduction of serum ECP levels was correlated with a decrease in the number of asthmatic attacks and/or improvement of pulmonary function. These results suggest that the ECP levels in peripheral blood indicate an increased activity of eosinophil and would be a more useful marker than eosinophil counts for making clinical analyses and estimating treatment efficacy in paediatric patients with allergic diseases.