FeNO levels in children with asthma and other diseases of the lung

S. Kelekçi, V. Sen, I. Yolbas, Ü. Uluca, I. Tan, M.F. Gürkan

Department of Pediatric Pulmonology, Medical Faculty, Dicle University and Department of Pediatrics, Diyarbakir, Turkey. selvikelekci@gmail.com

 

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• Respiratory Medicine

BACKGROUND: Prolonged cough in children is one of the major complaints seen in hospitals. It is difficult to make a proper diagnosis and start the appropriate treatment. Fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) measurement is a valuable non-invasive diagnostic tool in determining the cause of prolonged cough in children. Although there are several studies on asthma and COPD, there is a lack of them on other lung diseases such as tuberculosis, bronchiectasia, bronchiolitis obliterans (BO), and pneumonia.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this study, pre-treatment FeNO levels of patients with various lung diseases were measured and results from the sick patient groups were compared with the results from the control group.

RESULTS: Pre-treatment FeNO levels in BO, asthma, and tuberculosis patient groups were higher than in the control group (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference between the acute bacterial pneumonia and bronchiectasia groups, and the control group (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: FeNO measurement is a highly important guiding tool in diagnosis and treatment of various lung diseases.

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