Korea: Elevated serum eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (EDN) levels may cause wheezing episodes in children after respiratory tract infection (bronchiolitis, childhood asthma, and allergic rhinitis), suggests a recent study in the Journal of Asthma.
This is the first study to examine high serum eosinophil-derived neurotoxin in relation to wheezing episodes after a respiratory infection.
Wheezing is the high-pitched whistling sound made during breathing. It is quite common with pre-school children. Young children with wheezing require ED visits and hospitalizations at much higher rates than older children and adults.
Eosinophil-derived neurotoxin is associated with recurrent wheezing episodes after bronchiolitis, childhood asthma, and allergic rhinitis. Hanna Kim,
The study included 171 children who visited a university hospital with respiratory infections. They were divided into two groups; wheezing (n = 46) and non-wheezing (n = 125), Serum EDN levels, assayed by K EDN ELISA Kit, were then compared between the two groups.
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"These findings suggest that elevated serum eosinophil-derived neurotoxin levels could be a distinctive feature of respiratory infections with wheezing. EDN’s utility as a biomarker for the wheezing-associated disease should be explored through further study," concluded the authors.
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