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Exhaled breath condensate pH in patients with cystic fibrosis

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Abstract

Objective and design

Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) pH has been proposed as a useful, non-invasive marker of airway inflammation in pulmonary diseases. In this study we tested whether cystic fibrosis (CF) is associated with acidification of EBC, when pH is assessed by the CO2 gas standardization method.

Methods

EBC was collected using two different devices (EcoScreen and R-Tube) in 46 stable CF patients during routine clinical visits and in 28 healthy controls.

Results

Mean EBC pH in CF patients and in healthy controls was similar (EcoScreen: CF patients: 6.38 ± 0.03 versus controls: 6.39 ± 0.03, p = 0.699; R-tube: CF patients: 5.94 ± 0.04 versus controls: 6.02 ± 0.03, p = 0.159). Inflammatory cell counts in spontaneously expectorated sputum obtained in a subset of patients (n = 20) showed no correlation with pH values. EBC samples collected with the R-tube were more acidic than those collected with the EcoScreen device (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

Our data suggest that EBC pH does not discriminate between healthy controls and those with CF disease indicating that the clinical applicability of EBC pH measurements for assessing airway inflammation in CF is limited.

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Acknowledgments

We thank M. Mikoss, J. Hernadi, J. Csoszor and K. Rodler (National Koranyi Institute of TB and Pulmonology) for technical assistance in FENO and EBC pH measurements. The study was supported by the Hungarian Respiratory Foundation and by the Hungarian National Scientific Foundation (OTKA K83338). Dr. B. Antus is a recipient of Bolyai Janos Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathophysiology, National Koranyi Institute of TB and Pulmonology, Piheno ut 1, Budapest, 1121, Hungary

    Balazs Antus & Imre Barta

  2. Department of Pulmonology, National Koranyi Institute of TB and Pulmonology, Piheno ut 1, Budapest, 1121, Hungary

    Balazs Antus, Eszter Csiszer & Krisztina Kelemen

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  1. Balazs Antus
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  2. Imre Barta
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Correspondence to Balazs Antus.

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Responsible Editor: Michael Parnham.

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Antus, B., Barta, I., Csiszer, E. et al. Exhaled breath condensate pH in patients with cystic fibrosis. Inflamm. Res. 61, 1141–1147 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00011-012-0508-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00011-012-0508-9

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