Contribution of Total Serum IgE, Absolute Eosinophil Count, Pre-treatment FEV1 and post bronchodilator reversibility to augment the diagnosis of Bronchial Asthma

Abstract

Aims and Objectives- Bronchial Asthma is a heterogenous disease with diverse forms of clinical presentation, pathological findings and treatment response. This heterogeneity leads to a number of patients getting misdiagnosed. Hence no single definitive test is available to confirm the diagnosis, we evaluated for diagnostic correlation of four different laboratory findings to augment the diagnosis of Bronchial Asthma, which were Total Serum IgE, Absolute Eosinophil Count, Pre-treatment FEV1 and post bronchodilator reversibility. Materials and methods- We evaluated prospectively 66 cases of bronchial asthma and 20 controls from normal population with the help of proper history and relevant investigations [to rule out other diseases like COPD, ILD etc.] These patients were then evaluated for total serum IgE using Quantitative ELISA test, Absolute Eosinophil Count by Manual Microscopy an automated cell counter and Pre-treatment FEV1 as well as Post-bronchodilator reversibility were determined by using digital spirometry. Results- Absolute Eosinophil Count levels were found to be higher in cases (770.47±843.957) as compared to controls (217.05±86.886) and were found to be statistically significant (p-value 0.005). Though serum IgE levels were also found to be higher in cases (140.56±59.728) as compared to controls (108.00±30.810) but were found to be statistically insignificant (p-value 0.022). On Post-bronchodilator reversibility testing, out of total 66 cases 39 cases showed