title: [Correlation of serum eosinophil cationic protein with the severity of allergic rhinitis in childhood].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the relationships between the severity of childhood allergic rhinitis (AR) and the peripheral blood eosinophil count, serum eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), total IgE (tIgE), and allergen-specific IgE (sIgE) levels.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 138 children with AR aged 3 to 17 (9.96 ± 3.78, x() ± s) years old were enrolled in the study. All children had persistent AR sensitized to house dust mites with a clinical history of 3 months to 12 (4.21 ± 2.72) years. The disease severity was evaluated using 10 cm-visual analogue scale (VAS), and the serum levels of ECP, tIgE and sIgE were determined using an ImmunoCAP system. Statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS11.0 software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 138 children with AR, the VAS scores for global severity of rhinitis and nasal obstruction symptom were 5.32 ± 2.16 and 4.78 ± 2.45, respectively. Blood eosinophil count was 0.39 [0.24; 0.63] (M[P(25); P(75)]) ×10(9)/ml. Serum levels of ECP and total IgE were 10.60 [3.26; 30.80] µg/L and (2.50 ± 0.53) log kU/L, respectively. Serum levels of allergen-sIgE against Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and Dermatophagoides farinae were 58.20[24.75; > 100] kUA/L and 54.95 [24.55; > 100] kUA/L, respectively. The VAS scores of nasal obstruction symptom, but not global severity of rhinitis, were positively related to the duration of AR (r = 0.215, P = 0.011) and the levels of serum ECP (r = 0.196, P = 0.022) in bivariate correlation analysis. There was also a significant correlation between the serum ECP level and the blood eosinophil count (r = 0.295, P = 0.000). No relationships of blood eosinophil count, and serum tIgE and sIgE levels with global severity of rhinitis as well as nasal obstruction symptom were found (all P > 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggested that the severity of nasal obstruction was positively correlated with the duration of rhinitis and the levels of serum ECP in childhood persistent AR due to house dust mites, indicating the disease severity might be related to chronic inflammatory process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Xin-jie
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Mei-ping
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Ruo-xi
authors.initials: RX
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Lu-ping
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Qin-hong
authors.initials: QH
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D047150:Eosinophil Cationic Protein / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D039981:Pyroglyphidae / Q000276:immunology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D065631:Rhinitis, Allergic; D012221:Rhinitis, Allergic, Perennial / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D007073:Immunoglobulin E; D047150:Eosinophil Cationic Protein