Background: Asthmatic children present variable degrees of airway inflammation, remodeling, and resistance, which correlate with disease control and severity. The chronic inflammatory process of the airway triggers airway remodeling, which reflects the degree of airway resistance. Pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic mediators are centrally involved in this process.
Objective: To investigate whether the levels of pulmonary and systemic pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic mediators present a correlation with the resistance of the respiratory system and of the proximal and distal airways.
Methods: 39 Asthmatic children (persistent mild and moderate) and 39 non-asthmatic children (both between 6 and 13 years old) were evaluated for anthropometric characteristics, lung function and mechanics, and pulmonary and systemic immune responses.
Results: Asthmatic children showed an increased number of blood eosinophils (p < 0.04), basophils (p < 0.04), monocytes (p < 0.002) and lymphocytes (p < 0.03). In addition, asthmatic children showed impaired lung function, as demonstrated by FEV1 (p < 0.0005) and FEV1/FVC (p < 0.004), decreased total resistance of the respiratory system (R5Hz; p < 0.009), increased resistance of the proximal airways (R20Hz; p < 0.02), increased elastance (Z5Hz; p < 0.02) and increased reactance (X5Hz; p < 0.002) compared to non-asthmatic children. Moreover, the following inflammatory factors were significantly higher in asthmatic than non-asthmatic children: GM-CSF in the breath condensate (BC) (p < 0.0001) and in the serum (p < 0.0001); TGF-beta in the BC (p < 0.0001) and in the serum (p < 0.004); IL-5 in the BC (p < 0.02) and in the serum (p < 0.01); IL-4 in the serum (p < 0.0002).
Conclusions: Impulse oscillometry is a sensitive method to detect airway resistance in persistent mild and moderate asthmatic children, an event followed by increased levels of pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic mediators.
Keywords: Lung function; asthma; asthmatic children; lung immunology; lung mechanics; lung remodeling.