Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Observational
Official Title: Determination of Normal Values of Nasal Nitric Oxide Measured With the NIOX MINO Analyzer in Adults: a Pilot Study
Brief Summary:
Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by impaired airway mucociliary clearance leading to recurrent respiratory infections, bronchiectasis and eventually respiratory insufficiency. Diagnosis of PCD is difficult and relies on complex methods which are not widely available (1).
Nasal nitric oxide (nNO) is reduced in PCD patients as compared to normal subjects, and nNO measurement has been proposed as a non-invasive screening tool for PCD. However, nNO measurement techniques are not standardized and reference values are lacking (2, 3).
The NIOX MINO is a handheld analyzer developed for the non-invasive measurement of exhaled NO (eNO) in asthmatics. Measurement of nNO with the NIOX MINO has been reported in only few studies (4-6), which mainly compared the NIOX MINO with others NO analyzers. However, no study attempted to establish reference values with the NIOX MINO in a large number of normal subjects.
One critical issue in nNO measurement is to avoid contamination of nasal air by exhaled alveolar air during nNO sampling. This can be obtained by either breath holding, or by a breathing technique allowing soft palate closure during sampling, such as mouth breathing again resistance. However, as sampling times with the NIOX MINO are long (2 minutes at a flow of 2 ml/min, and 45 seconds at a flow of 5 ml/min), these techniques may be difficult to apply.
In this pilot study, we will determine normal nNO values in 100 healthy men and women aged 20 to 70 years using 3 different breathing techniques: