Nasal nitric oxide assessment in primary ciliary dyskinesia using aspiration, exhalation, and humming.
BACKGROUND
Several studies reported low nasal nitric oxide (nNO) levels in subjects with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) and proposed nNO measurement as a diagnostic tool to screen for the disease. All these reports used the aspiration nNO method. The goal of this study was to evaluate nNO in patients with PCD using different methods of NO measurement, including continuous aspiration, silent exhalation, and single-breath humming exhalation, which increases NO wash-out from the paranasal sinuses to the nose.


METHODS
Fourteen patients with established diagnosis of PCD and 14 healthy controls (HC) were examined. Oral and nasal NO levels were measured by chemiluminescence. Each subject performed NO measurement in triplicate during oral exhalation, nasal aspiration (nNOasp), nasal exhalation (nNOexh), and single-breath humming (nNOhum).


RESULTS
The median nNOasp value (95% confidence interval) was 11.6 (7.2-19.1) ppb in PCD and 321.8 (270.6-510.6) ppb in HC (p<0.001). The nNOexh value was 2.2 (1.3-3.1) in PCD and 31.8 (26.6-47.2) ppb in HC (p<0.001). Patients with PCD had lower nNO than HC during the last 80% of the exhalation throughout humming, i.e. 2.8 (2.2-4.3) ppb vs. 212.4 (158.7-244.8) ppb (p<0.001), and did not show a clear nNO peak. All nasal NO measurements had excellent specificity and sensitivity in detecting PCD compared with the healthy controls.


CONCLUSIONS
nNO is consistently low in PCD with good specificity and sensitivity whatever the method used for NO measurement. The extremely low levels of nNO during humming support the notion that NO is defective in the paranasal sinuses in PCD.
Santamaria
Francesca
F
Department of Pediatrics, Federico II University, Naples, Italy.
De Stefano
Sara
S
Montella
Silvia
S
Barbarano
Federico
F
Iacotucci
Paola
P
Ciccarelli
Roberto
R
Sofia
Matteo
M
Maniscalco
Mauro
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001944:Breath Tests / Q000379:methods*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D045853:Exhalation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007619:Kartagener Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D009297:Nasal Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism*; D010256:Paranasal Sinuses / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013396:Suction; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014732:Vibration
D009569:Nitric Oxide