الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways in which many cells & cellular elements play a role. Asthma and obesity are prevalent disorders, each with a significant public health impact, and a large body of literature suggests an association between the two. Obesity has been suggested to play a role in the development, control and severity of asthma. Yet, whether it is a driving component in asthma development or a mere confounder or comorbidity of its presence, remains contro¬versial.
Several mechanisms have been suggested to explain the association between asthma and obesity including mechanical effects of obesity on pulmonary physiology, systemic inflammation, co-morbidities of obesity, prenatal diet and nutrition, hormonal factors and common genetic predictors.
Inflammation is an important aspect of asthma pathogenesis.Although airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness are recognized as major characteristics of bronchial asthma, hyperresponsiveness is a complex phenomenon, where inflammation contributes but may only be one piece of the puzzle.
Asthma phenotypes may be classified into broad categories based upon a single variable, including symptomatic triggers, patterns of airflow obstruction, and disease severity.
50 subjects were included in this study. They were grouped according to their body mass index (BMI) into 30 obese asthmatic subjects BMI 30.00 kg, 10 non-obese asthmatic subjects BMI 25.00 kg/m2 and 10 control subjects BMI 25.00 kg/m2.
The following investigations were carried out:
1) Anthropometric measurements for asthmatic and control subjects including body weight, body height, waist circumference ,the Body Mass Index (BMI)
2) Pulmonary flow rates including: Forced vital capacity (FVC), Forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), FEV1/FVC% and Forced expiratory flow rate at 25%, 50% and75% for asthmatic and control subjects using computerized dry spirometer (Jaeger, Germany).
3) Bronchial reactivity by methacholine inhalation challenge using the five-breath dosimeter protocol and the provocational dose that resulted in 20% DROP in FEV1 (PD20-FEV1) was computed.
4) Measurement of inflammatory biomarkers including,IL-8,MPO,A bsolute neutrophilic count,A bsolute eosinophilic count, sputum total cell count, , sputum neutrophils and eosinophils
5) Data were calculated and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS ver.20 Chicago, IL, USA).
• A significant difference was detected between the asthmatic and the control subjects in all pulmonary function parameters measured. There was no significant difference in pulmonary function parameters on comparing obese asthmatics with non-obese asthmatics.
• No significant correlation was found between airway hyper-responsiveness (PD20-FEV1) and parameters of obesity (BMI, waist circumference) in the asthmatics.
• There was no significant difference in airway hyper-responsiveness (PD20-FEV1) between obese and non-obese asthmatics.
• There is no significant difference between obese asthmatics and non obese asthmatics considering IL-8, MPO, meanwhile there was significant difference between two groups considering sputum eosinophils, sputum neutrophils, absolute neutrophilic count, and absolute eosinophilic count.
• There was significant correlation between BMI and MPOin serum, BMI and sputum eosinophils, BMI and absolute eosinophilic count.