Department of Oncoradiology, Petz Aladár County Teaching Hospital, Vasvári Pál u. 2-4, Győr, 9024, Hungary.
Department of Pulmonology, Petz Aladár County Teaching Hospital, Győr, Hungary.
Int J Biometeorol. 2017 Sep;61(9):1703-1708. doi: 10.1007/s00484-017-1397-y. Epub 2017 Jul 5.
The seasonal variability of certain non-allergic respiratory diseases is not clearly understood. Analysis of the breath condensate, the liquid that can be collected by breathing into a cold tube, has been proposed to bring closer to the understanding of airway pathologies. It has been assumed, that (1) airway lining fluid was a stable body liquid and (2) the breath condensate samples were representative of the airway lining fluid. Research was focussed on the identification of biomarkers indicative of respiratory pathologies. Despite 30 years of extended investigations breath condensate analysis has not gained any clinical implementation so far. The pH of the condensate is the characteristic that can be determined with the highest reproducibility. The present paper shows, that contrary to the initial assumptions, breath condensate is not a representative of the airway lining fluid, and the airway lining fluid is not a stable body liquid. Condensate pH shows baseline variability and it is influenced by drinking and by the ambient temperature. The changes in condensate pH are linked to changes in airway lining fluid pH. The variability of airway lining fluid pH may explain seasonal incidence of certain non-allergic respiratory diseases such as the catching of a common cold and the increased incidence of COPD exacerbations and exercise-induced bronchoconstriction in cold periods.
某些非过敏性呼吸道疾病的季节性变化尚不清楚。通过分析呼吸冷凝物（可通过向冷管中呼吸收集到的液体），人们对气道病理有了更深入的了解。人们假设：（1）气道衬里液是一种稳定的体液；（2）呼吸冷凝物样本代表气道衬里液。研究集中于识别表明呼吸道疾病的生物标志物。尽管已经进行了 30 多年的扩展研究，但呼吸冷凝物分析目前尚未在临床上得到应用。冷凝物的 pH 值是可重复性最高的特征。本文表明，与最初的假设相反，呼吸冷凝物不是气道衬里液的代表，气道衬里液也不是稳定的体液。冷凝物 pH 值显示出基线变异性，并且受饮水和环境温度的影响。冷凝物 pH 值的变化与气道衬里液 pH 值的变化有关。气道衬里液 pH 值的变化可能解释了某些非过敏性呼吸道疾病的季节性发作，例如普通感冒的发作、COPD 恶化的发生率增加以及寒冷时期的运动性支气管痉挛。
