Abstract English: Objectives To correlate the sputum eosinophil count and peripheral absolute eosinophil count (AEC) with the clinical severity of bronchial asthma. Materials and Methods This was a hospital-based cross-sectional study conducted on 100 asthmatic patients attending the pulmonary medicine Outpatient Department (OPD). Severity was assessed using GINA guidelines, the Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) and spirometry. Patients underwent blood sample collection for AEC and sputum induction for sputum eosinophilia. Statistical analysis utilised Pearson’s Chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test and correlation coefficients to determine associations between eosinophil levels and disease severity parameters. Results The mean age of the study population was 43.8 years, with a slight male predominance (57%). A statistically significant correlation was found between the AEC and the sputum eosinophil percentage (P < 0.05). Furthermore, a significant association was noted between both AEC and sputum eosinophilia with the ACQ scores, indicating their utility in disease severity assessment. Risk factors associated with more severe asthma included female sex, obesity, smoking and longer duration of symptoms. Conclusion Peripheral blood AEC and sputum eosinophil count are simple, cost-effective and reproducible methods that track well with eosinophilic airway inflammation. They can be effectively utilised to assess disease severity, guide management and predict prognosis in bronchial asthma.
Chitteddi et al. (Thu,) studied this question.