Correlational study on atmospheric concentrations of fine particulate matter and children cough variant asthma

Y.-X. Zhang, Y. Liu, Y. Xue, L.-Y. Yang, G.-D. Song, L. Zhao

Department of Pediatrics, Maternal and Child Health Hospital in LaiWu City, Laiwu, Shandong Province, China. zhao_lei1212@163.com

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• Respiratory Medicine

OBJECTIVE: We explored the relationship between atmospheric concentrations of fine particulate matter and children cough variant asthma.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: 48 children all diagnosed with cough variant asthma were placed in the cough asthma group while 50 children suffering from typical asthma were place in typical asthma group. We also had 50 cases of chronic pneumonia (the pneumonia group) and 50 cases of healthy children (the control group). We calculated the average PM 2.5 and temperature values during spring, summer, autumn and winter and monitored serum lymphocyte ratio, CD4+/CD8+T, immunoglobulin IgE, ventilatory index and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels.

RESULTS: Our results showed that PM 2.5 values in spring and winter were remarkably higher compared to other seasons. Correlated analysis demonstrated that the onset of cough asthma group was happening in spring. The onset of typical asthma group happened mostly in winter, followed by spring. We established a positive correlation between the onset of asthma of cough asthma group and PM 2.5 value (r = 0.623, p = 0.017), and there was also a positive correlation between the onset of asthma of typical asthma group and PM 2.5 value (r = 0.714, p = 0.015). Our results showed that lymphocyte ratio and IgE level in the cough asthma group and the typical asthma group were significantly higher. CD4+/CD8+T was significantly lower in the cough asthma group and the typical asthma group. The hs-CRP level in cough asthma, typical asthma and pneumonia groups were significantly higher than that of the control group. The FEV1/predicted value, FEV1/FVC and MMEF/predicted value in the cough asthma group and the typical asthma group were significantly lower than those in other groups, however when comparing between two groups respectively, the difference was not statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings showed that PM2.5 was related to the onset of children cough variant asthma. PM2.5 reduced immune regulation and ventilatory function.

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