An assessment of the immunological status of patients with asthma–chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome

Abstract

Asthma–chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome (ACOS) has attracted great interest in recent years due to the poor knowledge of its mechanisms, difficulties in differential diagnosis and control. The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of immunological changes in patients with ACOS. The study groups consisted of 22 people with COPD, 13 people with asthma, and 25 people with ACOS. We determined the content of lymphocyte subpopulations (CD3+, CD3+CD4+, CD3+CD8+, CD19+, CD3-/CD16+CD56+, CD3+HLA-DR), immunoglobulin levels (IgA, IgG, IgM, IgE) and assessed the phagocytic activity of neutrophils. Results revealed an increase of CD3+HLA-DR cells in patients with asthma, ACOS and COPD, an increase in the level of immunoglobulin E and a decrease in the phagocytic function to the NBT test in three groups of patients. Significantly high immunoglobulin G values were found in patients with COPD compared with patients with asthma and ACOS. Thus, changes in the immunological status of patients with ACOS are manifested in the form of an increase in activated T-lymphocytes, an increase in serum immunoglobulin E, and a decrease in the phagocytic activity of neutrophils.