Assessment of Serum Osteopontin and Eosinophil Major Basic Protein Levels in Children with Bronchial Asthma

Abstract

Bronchial asthma (BA) is a chronic inflammatory illness that causes airway narrowing, airway hyperresponsiveness, airway mucous plugging. The purpose of this study was to improve the assessment of severity and degree of control of childhood bronchial asthma and to assess serum level of Osteopontin (OPN) and eosinophil major basic protein (EMBP) for pre-school and school-age children with asthma. This case control work was performed on 90 patients categorized into 2 groups; asthmatic group: involved 45 asthmatic children and control group: included 45 age and sex matched healthy children free from any renal injury or chronic diseases. Laboratory investigations (complete blood count (CBC), analysis of OPN and EMBP) were done after ethical considerations. OPN can significantly predict asthma at cut off >10.86 (P value of <0.001, the area under curve (AUC) of 0.914) with 93.33% sensitivity, 86.67% specificity, 87.5% positive predictive value (PPV), 92.9% negative predictive value (NPV). EMBP can significantly predict asthma at cut off >39.86(P value of <0.001, AUC of 0.702) with 86.67% sensitivity, 44.44% specificity, 60.9% PPV, 76.9% NPV. There was no correlation between OPN and EMBP and between the severity of asthma and markers as OPN and EMBP. OPN (OR=1.154, 95% CI= 1.021 -1.303, P value =0.007), EMBP (OR=1.017, 95% CI= 1.001 - 1.011, P value =0.013) and eosinophils (OR=7.254, 95% CI= 1.862 -28.261, P value <0.001) were significant predictors of asthma, while WBCs was not a significant predictor. Asthmatic children had higher OPN and EMBP. The severity of asthma was not significantly correlated with OPN and EMBP. OPN and EMBP can significantly predict asthma. Serum OPN and EMBP could be good biomarkers in the diagnosis of BA in different age groups.