الفهرس 
Allergy in PediatricsOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Background: Asthma is a heterogeneous disease, usually characterized by chronic airway inflammation. It is defined by the history of respiratory symptoms such as wheeze, shortness of breath, chest tightness and cough that vary over time and in intensity, together with variable expiratory airflow limitation. Recurrent wheezing is a common condition in pediatric practice and some studies have shown that one in three children has at least one episode of wheezing prior to their third birthday, with a prevalence of 50% at the age of 6 years.
Aim of the Work: to assess the diagnostic and prognostic value of serum EDN levels via ELISA in pediatric patients with Bronchial asthma and preschool wheezes in relation to their clinical and laboratory parameters particularly absolute eosinophilic counts.
Patients and Methods: This is a case control study that had been conducted on a stratified random sample of 60 patients who were seen in Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology unit, and Clinical Pathology Immunology Laboratory Ain Shams university Hospitals, and 30 age and sex matched healthy subjects in the period between June 2022 to November 2022.
Results: The comparison between the studied groups revealed the presence of statistically significant increase in % eosinophil among the cases group compared with the controls (P value<0.001). There was a statistically significant increase in absolute eosinophil among the cases group compared with the controls (P value<0.001). There was a statistically significant increase in serum EDN among the cases group compared with the controls (17.96 ± 4.95 ng/ml vs. 5.52 ± 1.4 ng/ml) (P value<0.001). The present study revealed a statistically significant increase of serum EDN among preschool wheezers compared with the control group (16.97 ± 4.24 ng/ml vs. 5.14 ± 1.39 ng/ml). Moreover, there was a statistically significant increase of serum EDN among asthmatic patients compared with the control (18.95 ± 5.47 ng/ml vs. 5.89 ± 1.35 ng/ml) that could be explained by elevated EDN level has been linked to eosinophilia and Th2-mediated inflammation and type 2 airway inflammations is the common type in childhood asthma. Another explanation could be attributed to the increased eosinophil extracellular traps that promoted the degranulation of eosinophils.
Conclusion: EDN is a good biomarker for eosinophilic inflammation including bronchial asthma and preschool wheezes and may be useful as a screening tool. For prediction of allergic respiratory diseases (asthmatic and school wheezers), the best cutoff value is > 7.8 with sensitivity =100% and specificity =96.67%.