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WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) – Measurement of exhaled carbon monoxide and nitric oxide can be used to monitor lung inflammation and response to drug therapy in ex-smokers with COPD, according to data from a study at the Imperial College School of Medicine in London.
Dr. Paolo Montuschi, now at Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, and colleagues found that 15 stable ex-smokers with COPD had a 2.5-fold higher mean CO level than 10 healthy nonsmokers (p < 0.05).
"Since ex-smokers with COPD had stopped smoking for at least 6 months, increased CO levels in these patients are likely to be the result of enhanced oxidant stress in their lungs," the researchers observe in the August issue of Chest..
Similarly, ex-smokers with COPD had about a 2-fold higher mean level of exhaled NO compared with healthy nonsmokers, at 12.0 and 6.5 ppb, respectively (p < 0.001).
The researchers detected a negative correlation between lung function (FEV1) and exhaled NO in ex-smokers with COPD (p < 0.02), but no such correlation with exhaled CO. "This may indicate that CO reflects primarily oxidant damage, which is only a component, albeit an important one, of the inflammatory process, with NO being a more general marker of airway inflammation on which the degree of obstruction depends," they speculate.
Dr. Montuschi and colleagues note that "exhaled CO and NO are strongly affected by cigarette smoking, which limits their usefulness as biomarkers in current smokers."
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