Variability in Sputum Sol Phase Proteins in Chronic Obstructive Bronchitis
- 1 July 1983
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Thoracic Society in American Review of Respiratory Disease
- Vol. 128 (1) , 60-64
- https://doi.org/10.1164/arrd.1983.128.1.60
Abstract
The variability of sputum sol phase proteins was studied in 27 patients with stable chronic obstructive bronchitis. Within individual patients (n ½ 11), variability over 5 consecutive days was similar for each of 4 proteins studied: average coefficient of variation (CV) for albumin was 39.8% for alpha1-antitrypsin (α1AT), 32.1%, for alpha1-antichymotrypsin (α1ACh), 26.6%, and for immunoglobulin A (lgA), 35.1%. The calculation of sputum-to-serum ratios did not affect this variability. Between patients (all patients studied on a single day) the variability of sputum sol phase proteins was greater (CV: albumin ½ 84.5%, α1AT ½ 90.1%, α1ACh ½ 58.3%,, and lgA ½ 71.6%) and was also unaffected by the use of sputum-to-serum concentration ratios. “Standardization” for albumin reduced the average within-patient variability for sputum α1 AT (CV from 32.1 to 19.7%) but it had no effect on α1 ACh and lgA. However, although between-patient CV for sputum α1AT was also reduced (from 90.1 to 53.4%, 2 p < 0.01) it significantly increased for α1ACh (from 58.3 to 86.0%, 2 p < 0.05) and lgA (71.6 to 170.1%, 2 p < 0.001), suggesting that such standardization may be inappropriate for these proteins.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: