AHMF: 1999 De Meirleir Abstract

Correlation Between Immunophenotyping and Bronchial Hyper-responsiveness

K. De Meirleir, P. De Becker, C. Demanet, I. Campine and W. Vinken.

Human Physiology and Medicine

Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

In our clinical evaluation of CFS patients we often see bronchial hyper-responsiveness for which we do not have a clear explanation. Also, we observe relatively many immunological disturbances. Our aim was to find out whether there is a correlation with one or more of the immunologic markers and the presence of bronchial hyper-respoonsiveness.

Out of our large database we selected 78 patients (CDC criteria 1998 or 1994) with bronchial hyper-responsiveness (defined as PD20 = fall of FEV1 of 20% below 2mg during a histamine bronchoprovocation test) and 78 patients with a negative bronchoprovocation test who were matched for sex and age. All of these patients also had an immunophenotyping done in the same period.

The immunophenotyping consisted of the following markers (both relative (5) and absolute (/mm3) numbers): CD2+ (E-rosette receptor), CD3+ (T cells), CD3+HLADR+ (activated T cells), CD25+ (activated T cells), CD4+ (helper/inducer T cells), CD4+CD45RA- (memory CD4-cells), CD4+CD45RA+ (virgin CD4-cells), CD8 (cytotoxic suppressor T cells), CD8+CD11b+ (suppressor cells/NK subset), CD8+CD11b- (cytotoxic T cells), CD19+ (B cells), CD19+CD5+ (CD5+ B cells), CD3-CD15CD56+ (NK cells), CD3+CD16CD56+ (subset cytotoxic T cells) and the CD4/CD8 ratio.

Statistical analysis was performed using the unpaired t-test.

Only one maker was significantly elevated in the group of patients with bronchial hyper-responsiveness: CD25, which is a marker of inflammation. All other immunological markers were not significantly different.