Department of Allergy, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
Pediatr Pulmonol. 2011 Jul;46(7):627-31. doi: 10.1002/ppul.21390. Epub 2011 Jun 1.
Management of asthma could be improved by measuring exhaled nitric oxide (FENO). Portable hand-held FENO analyzer (NIOX MINO) is practical and small and could be used also in the primary care office. It has demonstrated good repeatability and correlation with stationary device (NIOX) in adults and school aged children, but so far there have been no reports on young children. The aim of this study was to compare conventional chemiluminescence device (NIOX) with a hand-held electrochemical device (NIOX MINO) in young children.
Paired measurements of FENO were performed with the stationary chemiluminescence-based analyzer (NIOX) and with portable electrochemical device (NIOX MINO) in children with asthmatic symptoms and age-matched controls.
Fifty-five children with mean (range) age of 5.7 (3.9-8.5) years were evaluated with both devices. Measurements were successful with both devices in 40 out of 57 children. NIOX MINO was more difficult to use than NIOX in this age group, success rates being 73% and 93%, respectively (P = 0.004). The reproducibility was similar and there was a close correlation between FENO measured by the two devices (r = 0.97, P < 0.001). However, Bland-Altman plot demonstrated limits of agreement that were relatively wide compared to low levels of FENO in the sample. Both devices were sensitive enough to distinguish higher FENO levels in children with asthmatic symptoms, compared to healthy controls.
We conclude that NIOX MINO can be used as a screening tool for the assessment of airway inflammation in children from the age of 4 years, but its applicability is limited by lower measurement success rate and relatively poor accuracy and detection limit at low levels of FENO.
通过测量呼出气一氧化氮（FeNO）可以改善哮喘的管理。便携式手持式 FeNO 分析仪（NIOX MINO）实用且小巧，也可用于初级保健办公室。它已在成人和学龄儿童中证明了良好的重复性和与固定式设备（NIOX）的相关性，但迄今为止尚无关于幼儿的报道。本研究的目的是比较手持式电化学仪器（NIOX MINO）与传统化学发光仪器（NIOX）在幼儿中的应用。
对有哮喘症状的儿童和年龄匹配的对照组进行了基于固定式化学发光的分析仪（NIOX）和便携式电化学仪器（NIOX MINO）的配对 FeNO 测量。
对 55 名平均（范围）年龄为 5.7（3.9-8.5）岁的儿童进行了两项设备的评估。在 57 名儿童中，有 40 名成功完成了两项设备的测量。在这个年龄组中，NIOX MINO 比 NIOX 更难使用，成功率分别为 73%和 93%（P=0.004）。重复性相似，两种设备之间的相关性密切（r=0.97，P<0.001）。然而，Bland-Altman 图显示的一致性区间与样本中 FeNO 的低水平相比相对较宽。两种设备都足以区分有哮喘症状的儿童与健康对照组之间更高的 FeNO 水平。
我们得出结论，NIOX MINO 可作为评估 4 岁以上儿童气道炎症的筛查工具，但由于测量成功率较低，准确性和检测下限相对较差，其适用性有限。
