Chest
CorrespondenceWhy Conventional Exhaled Breath Condensate pH Studies Cannot Provide Reliable Estimates of Airway Acidification
Section snippets
To the Editor
In a recent article in CHEST (February 2011), the failure of Liu et al1 to confirm earlier reports of decreased exhaled breath condensate (EBC) pH among patients with asthma2 is disappointing but may have been inevitable because of some fundamental misconceptions in conventional EBC pH studies. Although EBC acidification is used to detect acidification of airway lining fluid (ALF), ALF pH cannot be estimated from EBC pH unless the buffer capacities of ALF and EBC are also known. It is likely
Acknowledgments
Role of sponsors: The sponsor had no role in the design of the study, the collection and analysis of the data, or in the preparation of the manuscript.
Other contributions: This work was performed at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor, University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center.
References (5)
- et al.
Determinants of exhaled breath condensate pH in a large population with asthma
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(2011) - et al.
Endogenous airway acidification. Implications for asthma pathophysiology
Am J Respir Crit Care Med
(2000)
Cited by (3)
Biomarkers in severe asthma
2017, Severe Asthma: Toward Personalized Patient ManagementSafety of an alkalinizing buffer designed for inhaled medications in humans
2013, Respiratory CareThe COPD biomarker qualification consortium (CBQC)
2013, COPD: Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Financial/nonfinancial disclosures: The authors have reported to CHEST that no potential conflicts of interest exist with any companies/organizations whose products or services may be discussed in this article.
Funding/Support: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [Grants HL75405 and HD51857].
Reproduction of this article is prohibited without written permission from the American College of Chest Physicians (http://www.chestpubs.org/site/misc/reprints.xhtml).