Kharitonov S A, Gonio F, Kelly C, Meah S, Barnes P J
Dept of Thoracic Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, London, UK.
Eur Respir J. 2003 Mar;21(3):433-8. doi: 10.1183/09031936.03.00066903a.
Airway inflammation in asthma is not measured routinely in clinical practice. Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FE(NO)), a marker of airway inflammation, is increasingly used as an outcome measure in asthma intervention studies and yet the reproducibility of FE(NO) measurements is unknown. The reproducibility, day-to-day, diurnal variation and perception of standardised FE(NO) measurements were examined in 59 subjects (40 children aged 7-13 yrs and 19 adults aged 18-60 yrs), both healthy (n=30) and with mild (n = 29) asthma. FE(NO) was measured on five consecutive days (four measurements on the same day) for adults and twice on the same day for children. The coefficient of reproducibility expressed as the mean pooled standard deviation (n = 59, 675 estimations) was 2.11 parts per billion (ppb) and intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.99 in both children and adults. FE(NO) was significantly higher in asthma subjects (32.3 ppb) than in healthy subjects (16.3 ppb). There was no diurnal or day-to-day variation, or a learning effect, as the result of FE(NO) measurements were identical at results of the beginning and at the end of the study. It was concluded that fractional exhaled nitric oxide measurements are simple, reproducible, free from diurnal and day-to-day variation, and acceptable by both healthy and asthmatic adults and children, as a part of their routine visit to a physician.
在临床实践中，哮喘气道炎症并非常规检测项目。呼出一氧化氮分数（FE(NO)）作为气道炎症的一个标志物，在哮喘干预研究中越来越多地被用作一项结果指标，然而FE(NO)测量的可重复性尚不清楚。对59名受试者（40名7至13岁儿童和19名18至60岁成年人）进行了标准化FE(NO)测量的可重复性、日间变化和感知情况的研究，这些受试者包括健康者（n = 30）和轻度哮喘患者（n = 29）。对成年人连续五天进行FE(NO)测量（同一天进行四次测量），对儿童则在同一天进行两次测量。以平均合并标准差表示的可重复性系数（n = 59，675次估计）为2.11十亿分比（ppb），儿童和成年人的组内相关系数均为0.99。哮喘受试者的FE(NO)（32.3 ppb）显著高于健康受试者（16.3 ppb）。由于研究开始和结束时FE(NO)测量结果相同，所以不存在日间或每日变化，也没有学习效应。得出的结论是，作为健康和哮喘成年人及儿童常规就医的一部分，呼出一氧化氮分数测量简单、可重复，无日间和每日变化，且健康和哮喘成年人及儿童均可接受。
