Introduction: With the growing awareness of COPD as a systemic disease, there has
been a shift in the focus of biomarker discovery away from lung sources and toward
blood specimens. Aim of Work: The aim of the present work was to evaluate the
utility of serum SP-D compared to serum CRP as biomarkers in tracking disease
progression of COPD and to assess the effect of smoking and inhaled steroid on their
levels. Subjects and Methods: Seventy subjects were enrolled in this study divided
into 2 main groups: healthy control group (30 subjects) and COPD patients' group
(40 subjects).Serum SP-D and serum CRP were measured using enzyme linked
immunsorpent assay method (ELISA). Results: revealed that COPD is associated
with significant higher levels of both serum SP-D and CRP, while smoking is
associated with significant higher levels of SP-D only. On the other hand, inhaled
steroid is associated with significant lower serum levels of both SP-D and CRP. In
addition, serum SP-D levels correlate positively with the severity of COPD disease
while CRP levels showed no significant correlation with severity of the disease.
Conclusion: These results empower the sensitivity of both markers in diagnosis of
COPD and in following the response of the patients to steroid therapy. On the other
hand, results suggest that SP-D is more accurate than CRP as serum biomarker in
tracking disease progression of COPD patients.