title: Human β-defensin 2 concentration of respiratory tract mucosa in elderly patients with pneumonia and its associated factors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  to identify HBD2 peptide in sputum of patients with pneumonia; to obtain mean concentration difference of HBD2 between elderly patients and the younger adults with pneumonia; and to find any association between age, nutritional status, smoking habits, diabetes mellitus, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the concentration of HBD2 in patients with pneumonia.
  
  
  METHODS
  a cross-sectional study with consecutive sampling technique was conducted in 23 elderly patients and 38 younger adults with pneumonia who were hospitalized in Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta. Patients with pulmonary and respiratory tract malignancy, taking long-term corticosteroid and/or immunosuppressant therapy were excluded. The sputum of patient was taken spontaneously or by sputum induction technique and prepared for identification by dissolving with dithiothreitol (DTT) solution. The presence of HBD2 was identified by using SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting; while the concentration was measured by ELISA. The mean difference of HBD2 concentrations between elderly patients and the young adults was analyzed using t-test. Chi-square test was performed to analyze the association between several risk factors and HBD2 concentrations in the sputum.
  
  
  RESULTS
  the mean concentration of HBD2 in the sputum of all subjects was 178.98 (SD 49.55) pg/ml. There was no mean concentration difference of HBD2 between elderly and younger adult patients with pneumonia. Age, nutritional status, smoking habit and diabetes mellitus were not associated with HBD2 concentration; however, COPD was associated with HBD2 concentration (p-value = 0.014).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  there is no mean concentration difference of HBD2 in the sputum of elderly and younger adult with pneumonia. There is association between COPD with HBD2 concentrations in the sputum of patients with pneumonia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia-dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta Pusat, Indonesia. kuntjoro.harimurti01@ui.ac.id
authors.forename: Kuntjoro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Harimurti
authors.forename: Samsuridjal
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Djauzi
authors.forename: Arief B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Witarto
authors.forename: Esthika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dewiasty
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel / Q000379:methods; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009752:Nutritional Status; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism; D020545:Respiratory Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000378:metabolism; D013183:Sputum / Q000378:metabolism*; D023083:beta-Defensins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: C106641:DEFB4A protein, human; D023083:beta-Defensins