Hydrogen Peroxide Content and pH of Expired Breath Condensate from Patients with Asthma and COPD

Figures & data

Table 1.  The characteristics, pulmonary function, and fractional exhaled nitric oxide in healthy volunteers (Control) and patients with asthma and COPD, the ACT scores in asthmatic, and the CAT scores and emphysema scores in COPD patients

Subjects	Control	Asthma	COPD
Number	33	29	33
Male / female	22 / 11	14 / 15	32 / 1
Age (y)	34 ± 3	53 ± 3*	76 ± 1 ^†§
BMI (kg/m^2)	21. ± 0.5	24.4 ± 0.9 *	22.1 ± 0.6 ^‡
Pack years	0	0	53.2 ± 4.1 ^§
VC (% pred.)	98.9 ± 1.7.	96.7 ± 2.7	93.4 ± 3.6
FEV1 (L)	3.6 ± 0.12	2.10 ± 0.13 ^†	1.54 ± 0.11 ^†§
FEV1 (% pred.)	101.4 ± 2.0	86.7 ± 4.0 ^†	65.9 ± 3.7 ^†§
FEV1/FVC (%)	85.9 ± 1.1	71.0 ± 2.6 ^†	50.9 ± 2.3 ^†§
FRC (% pred.)	104.6 ± 3.2	109.4 ± 6.9	106.6 ± 4.7
RV (% pred.)	118.1 ± 5.4	129.1 ± 11.6	163.6± 9.7 ^†§
RV/TLC (%)	29.2 ± 2.0	39.2 ± 2.0 ^†	47.6 ± 2.0 ^†§
DLCO (% pred.)	98.6 ± 2.9	84.7 ± 6.2	58.1 ± 4.0 ^†§
FeNO (ppb)	21.6 ± 3.0	48.6 ± 6.9 ^†	30.6 ± 2.6 *^‡
ACT score		21.4 ± 0.8
CAT score			12.8 ± 1.5
Total LAA score			5.5 ± 0.8
LAV%			14.3 ± 2.2

The values are the means ± SEM. BMI, body mass index; ACT, asthma control test; CAT, COPD assessment test; FeNO, fractional exhaled nitric oxide; LAA, low attenuation area; LAV%,% of total lung volume occupied low attenuation. *p < 0.05 and ^†p < 0.01 vs. control; ^‡p < 0.05 and ^§p < 0.01 vs. asthmatic patients.

Figure 1.  A comparison of the hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) concentrations and pH in the expired breath condensate (EBC) obtained from healthy volunteers who had never smoked (control) and patients with asthma and COPD.

Table 2.  Simple regression analysis using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient in asthma and COPD

	H2O2 in EBC		pH of EBC
	Coefficient	p-value	Coefficient	p-value
Asthma
Age	0.19	0.34	0.10	0.61
BMI	0.04	0.84	–0.23	0.23
pH of EBC	–0.02	0.90
ACT score	–0.14	0.47	0.15	0.42
FeNO	0.27	0.17	0.04	0.86
VC,% of pred.	–0.01	0.97	0.05	0.81
FEV1,% of pred.	–0.31	0.11	–0.31	0.11
COPD
Age, yr	0.39	0.03	0.06	0.74
BMI	–0.15	0.41	–0.32	0.07
pH	0.40	0.02
CAT score	0.52	0.002	0.32	0.07
FeNO	0.33	0.13	0.01	0.95
VC,% of pred.	–0.46	0.007	–0.46	0.007
FEV1,% of pred.	–0.28	0.12	–0.33	0.13
RV,% of pred.	–0.20	0.26	0.01	0.95
DLco,% of pred.	–0.19	0.29	–0.26	0.15
LAV%,%	0.18	0.33	0.20	0.29

EBC, exhaled breath condensate; BMI, body mass index; ACT, asthma control test; CAT, COPD assessment test; FeNO, fractional exhaled nitric oxide; LAV%,% of total lung volume occupied low attenuation% of volume of low attenuation area.

Figure 2.  The relationship between the hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) concentrations in the expired breath condensate (EBC) and the COPD assessment test (CAT) scores in patients with COPD.