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132304

Serum Folate in Asthma: Does it Correlate to Severity? A Single Center Experience

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Last updated: 22 Jan 2023

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Abstract

Background: Bronchial asthma is the most common chronic childhood illness. It is characterized by airway inflammation and episodic airflow obstruction. Low serum folate has been inconsistently reported as a risk factor for  bronchial asthma severity. Other studies reported an increased risk of asthma in children whose mothers received prenatal folic acid supplementation. 
Aim of the work: To compare serum folate level in asthmatic patients to non-asthmatic healthy controls, and to demonstrate whether folate level correlates to severity &/or frequency of asthma exacerbations and pulmonary function parameters.
Methods: Forty-five asthmatic Egyptian children and an equal number of healthy controls were included. Serum folate level was measured in both groups and spirometry was performed for the asthmatic children.
Results: Serum folate levels were significantly lower among patients (7.83ng/ml ± 2.47) versus controls (9.84ng/ml ± 3.47), (p value 0.002). Serum folate levels also had an inverse correlation with severity of asthma exacerbations (r = – 0.482), (p = 0.001) and their frequency (r = – 0.418), (p= 0.004). Serum folate levels inversely correlated as well with severity of asthma as a chronic illness (r = – 0.315), (p = 0.035). The cutoff point of serum folate level that was found to increase the severity of asthma exacerbations was calculated at ≤ 8.84ng/ml. Only 7 patients fell below the current normal reference range for serum folate. On the other hand, serum folate level did not significantly correlate with any of the pulmonary function test variables measured. 
Conclusions: Serum folate levels were lower in asthmatic children when compared to healthy controls, and it negatively correlated with asthma severity and exacerbations, but not to pulmonary function parameters. The cutoff serum folate level for increased severity of asthma exacerbations fell within the normal folate range for children. Further research is recommended to assess any possible beneficial effects for folate supplementation in asthma.

DOI

10.21608/cupsj.2020.34806.1003

Keywords

Asthma, Exacerbations, Folic acid, serum folate, severity

Authors

First Name

Christine

Last Name

Basanti

MiddleName

W.S.

Affiliation

Pediatric Department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt

Email

christine.w.shaker@gmail.com

City

-

Orcid

0000-0002-3149-9233

First Name

Magd

Last Name

Kotb

MiddleName

A.

Affiliation

Pediatric Department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt

Email

magdkotb@kasralainy.edu.eg

City

-

Orcid

https://orcid.org/00

First Name

Nagla

Last Name

Elsalawy

MiddleName

F.

Affiliation

Clinical and Chemical Pathology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

Email

nagla_elsalawy@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Nossaiba

Last Name

Telb

MiddleName

E. A.

Affiliation

Pediatrics Department, Misr Children's Hospital for Health Insurance

Email

dr.nosaibaelsaeed@gmail.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Azza

Last Name

Abdelmegeid

MiddleName

K.

Affiliation

Pediatric Department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt

Email

azzakamal1718@gmail.com

City

-

Orcid

0000-0002-6665-3771

Volume

1

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

19715

Issue Date

2021-01-01

Receive Date

2020-07-05

Publish Date

2021-01-01

Page Start

25

Page End

33

Print ISSN

2805-279X

Online ISSN

2682-3985

Article File

CUPSJ_Volume 1_Issue 1_Pages 25-33.pdf

PDF . 1.0MB

Link

https://cupsj.journals.ekb.eg/article_132304.html

Detail API

https://cupsj.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=132304

Order

5

Type

Original Research

Type Code

1,229

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Pediatric Sciences Journal

Publication Link

https://cupsj.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

-

Details

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Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023