Background: Asthma is a common, chronic respiratory disease affecting 1-18% of the population in different countries. Lipoxins were the first agents to be identified as anti-inflammatory endogenous lipid mediators involved in the resolution of inflammation.
Objective: The study aimed to test this hypothesis via investigating the serum levels of lipoxin A4 in a group of pediatric patients comparing to controls. Also to examine potential differences in lipox in A4 levels in relation to the severity of asthma.
Patients and Methods: A case-control study was conducted at Zagazig University. Sample size was 22 children in cases group and 22 children in controls group. Twenty two patients were classified as mild, moderate and severe persistent asthma. All children were subjected to lipoxin levels assay.
Results: Serum lipoxin A4 levels were significantly higher in all asthmatic patients compared to controls group with P value (<0.05). There was statistically significant difference between degree of severity and lipoxin level. On pairwise comparison, the difference was significant between mild and severe group (P=0.01). Our study shows that there was significant increase of serum LXA4 levels in patients with severe asthma compared to those with moderate and mild asthma.
Conclusion: Serum lipoxin was significantly elevated in asthma patients when compared to controls (P <0.05). Serum lipoxin levels in severe asthmatics were significantly higher than in moderate and mild asthmatics (P <0.01).