Efficacy of two breath condensers.
BACKGROUND
Examination of Exhaled Breath Condensate has been suggested to give information about inflammatory airway diseases.


OBJECTIVE
The aim was to compare efficacy and variability in gain of two commercially available exhaled breath condensers, ECoScreen and RTube in an in vitro set up.


METHODS
Test fluids containing myeloperoxidase (MPO) or human neutrophil lipocalin (HNL) in addition to saline and bovine serum albumin were nebulized and aerosols were transferred by a servo ventilator to either of the two condensers. Analyses of MPO, HNL, or chlorine were done by means of ELISA, RIA, or a modified adsorbed organic halogen technique (AOX), respectively.


RESULTS
Recoveries of HNL were higher when using ECoScreen than RTube (P<0.05). In contrast, there were no significant differences between the two condensers in recoveries of MPO or chlorine. The spread of data was wide regarding all tested compounds.


CONCLUSIONS
Variability in gain was large and ECoScreen was more efficacious then RTube in condensing the tested solutes of HNL, but not those of MPO or chlorine.
Davidsson
A
A
Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. anette.davidsson@lio.se
Schmekel
B
B
D000818:Animals; D001944:Breath Tests / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D002417:Cattle; D002713:Chlorine / Q000032:analysis*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D054834:Lipocalins / Q000032:analysis*; D009330:Nebulizers and Vaporizers; D009195:Peroxidase / Q000032:analysis*; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
D054834:Lipocalins; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine; D002713:Chlorine; D009195:Peroxidase