FeNO levels in children with asthma and other diseases of the lung.

BACKGROUND: Prolonged cough in children is one of the major complaints seen in hospitals. It is difficult to make a proper diagnosis and start the appropriate treatment. Fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) measurement is a valuable non-invasive diagnostic tool in determining the cause of prolonged cough in children. Although there are several studies on asthma and COPD, there is a lack of them on other lung diseases such as tuberculosis, bronchiectasia, bronchiolitis obliterans (BO), and pneumonia.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this study, pre-treatment FeNO levels of patients with various lung diseases were measured and results from the sick patient groups were compared with the results from the control group.

RESULTS: Pre-treatment FeNO levels in BO, asthma, and tuberculosis patient groups were higher than in the control group (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference between the acute bacterial pneumonia and bronchiectasia groups, and the control group (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: FeNO measurement is a highly important guiding tool in diagnosis and treatment of various lung diseases.