Exhaled breath condensate eicosanoid levels associate with asthma and its severity

Background The relationship between anti-inflammatory lipoxins and proinflammatory leukotrienes might be important in the pathobiology and severity of asthma. Objective We sought to investigate whether exhaled breath condensate (EBC) lipoxin and leukotriene measurements can noninvasively characterize the asthmatic diathesis and its severity. Methods We measured lipoxin A4 (LXA4 ) and leukotriene B4 (LTB4 ) levels in EBC collected from patients with asthma of different severities and from healthy control subjects. Results EBC LXA4 and LTB4 levels are increased in asthmatic patients compared with those seen in healthy control subjects (LXA4 : 31.40 vs 2.41 pg/mL EBC, respectively [ P