NITRIC OXIDE – MARKER OF AIRWAY INFLAMMATION IN ASTHMA AND ITS INFLUENCE ON BASIC THERAPY
Abstract:
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway abnormality. Special emphasis is placed on
monitoring allergic inflammation of the airways in asthma. A current method for this purpose is the
determination of nitric oxide in exhaled air. This method has a number of advantages: it can detect
eosinophilic airway inflammation, it can indicate airway response for the inhaled corticosteroid (it is a
predictive factor for the response to inhaled corticosteroids - NO decreases with its administration), it
can predict exacerbations (NO increases before asthma exacerbations), it allows the adjustment of the
doses of inhaled corticosteroids, it detects the patients which are non-responsive to corticosteroid
therapy, it is a viable and noninvasive marker of the airway inflammation, which allowed that the
analysis and monitoring asthma be secure, fast and very simple. A progress is recorded in the study of
two major classes of drugs, currently, used for the background therapy of asthma: inhaled
corticosteroids and leukotriene inhibitors. The therapeutical results of this therapy in the inflammatory
process correlate with the levels of nitric oxide in exhaled air.
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