Purpose YKL-40 is a chitinase-like protein found to\ncorrelate with asthma as well as numerous infectious and\nautoimmune diseases or cancer. The aim of the present\nstudy was to investigate the role of YKL-40 as a possible\nmarker of asthma and its associations with factors differentiating\nphenotypes of asthma.\nMethods The study group comprised 167 patients, including\n116 women and 51 men aged 18ââ?¬â??88 years with\nchronic asthma. The control group comprised 81 healthy\nindividuals, including 50 women and 31 men aged\n19ââ?¬â??86 years. In every participant, medical history was\ntaken; spirometry and skin prick tests were performed.\nYKL-40 was determined in sera by means of ELISA test.\nResults Mean serum YKL-40 level was 59.7 ng/ml\n(53.6ââ?¬â??65.7 ng/ml; 95 %CI) with significant difference between\nasthmatics and healthy controls (mean values: 66.8 Ã?± 53.8 vs.\n44.9 Ã?± 29.4 ng/ml; p\\0.001). In asthmatics, the level was\nsignificantly higher in subgroup with poor control of symptoms\nand exacerbations (91.8 Ã?± 57.1 ng/ml) compared to stable\nasthmatics (59.6 Ã?± 50.8 ng/ml; p\\0.001) as well as in atopic\ncompared to non-atopic asthmatics (77.2 Ã?± 53.9 vs.\n61.1 Ã?± 57.8 ng/ml; p\\0.001). Mean YKL-40 level in obese\nasthmatics was 135.6 ng/ml compared to 50.0 ng/ml in nonobese\n(p\\0.001).Whenphenotypes of early-onset atopic, lateonset\nnon-atopic, and obesity-related asthma were compared,\nYKL-40 levels were 80.62 Ã?± 46.9, 51.5 Ã?± 24.9, and\n168.1 Ã?± 71.5 ng/ml, respectively (p\\0.05).\nConclusion Although YKL-40 is not a specific marker for\nasthma, it correlates with some clinical features such as\nexacerbation, level of control, atopy, and obesity.
Loading....