Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Wijsman, Pieta C.
• Goorsenberg, Annika W.M.
• d’Hooghe, Julia N.S.
• Weersink, Els J.M.
• Fenn, Dominic W.
• Maitland van der Zee, Anke H.
• Annema, Jouke T.
• Brinkman, Paul
• Bonta, Peter I.

Titel

Exhaled breath analyses for bronchial thermoplasty in severe asthma patients

Ist Teil von

• Respiratory medicine, 2024-04, Vol.225, p.107583-107583, Article 107583

Ort / Verlag

England: Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2024

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) is a bronchoscopic treatment for severe asthma. Although multiple trials have demonstrated clinical improvement after BT, optimal patient selection remains a challenge and the mechanism of action is incompletely understood. The aim of this study was to examine whether exhaled breath analysis can contribute to discriminate between BT-responders and non-responders at baseline and to explore pathophysiological insights of BT. Exhaled breath was collected from patients at baseline and six months post-BT. Patients were defined as responders or non-responders based on a half point increase in asthma quality of life questionnaire scores. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) detection and analyses. Analytical workflow consisted of: 1) detection of VOCs that differentiate between responders and non-responders and those that differ between baseline and six months post-BT, 2) identification of VOCs of interest and 3) explore correlations between clinical biomarkers and VOCs. Data was available from 14 patients. Nonanal, 2-ethylhexanol and 3-thujol showed a significant difference in intensity between responders and non-responders at baseline (p = 0.04, p = 0.01 and p = 0.03, respectively). After BT, no difference was found in the compound intensity of these VOCs. A negative correlation was observed between nonanal and IgE and BALF eosinophils (r = −0.68, p < 0.01 and r = −0.61, p = 0.02 respectively) and 3-thujol with BALF neutrophils (r = −0.54, p = 0.04). This explorative study identified discriminative VOCs in exhaled breath between BT responders and non-responders at baseline. Additionally, correlations were found between VOC's and inflammatory BALF cells. Once validated, these findings encourage research in breath analysis as a non-invasive easy to apply technique for identifying airway inflammatory profiles and eligibility for BT or immunotherapies in severe asthma. •Breath differentiates bronchial thermoplasty responders from non-responders.•Volatile organic compounds correlate with inflammatory cells in BALF.•Breath analysis could identify bronchial thermoplasty candidates.