Eosinophilic bronchitis and asthma with sputum eosinophilia are different entities. 2006 Sep 8.

摘要

We read with interest the article "Eosinophilic bronchitis in asthma: a model for establishing dose-response and relative potency of inhaled corticosteroids,'' wherein the authors demonstrate that sputum eosinophilia of more than 2.5% in patients with uncontrolled asthma could be a useful model for assessing and performing dose-response and relative potency studies on different inhaled cortico-steroid compounds and delivery devices. However, we disagree with the use of the term eosinophilic bronchitis (EB) for describing sputum eosinophilia in asthma. Airway inflammation with eosinophils is now reported to occur not only in asthma but also in other airway diseases, such as chronic cough, atopic cough, episodic symptoms without asthma, allergic rhinitis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Eosinophilic inflammation exists in central and peripheral airways in both asthma and EB and has been demonstrated on the basis of biopsy and bron-choalveolar lavage fluid results.Whether EB represents a distinct clinical condition or is a precursor of asthma is unclear, but EB differs from asthma in several important ways.