We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies. Cookie Policy.

Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress hp
Sign In
Advertise with Us
LGC Clinical Diagnostics

Download Mobile App




Peripheral Blood Eosinophilia Correlates with Hyperplastic Nasal Polyp Growth

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 22 Jun 2016
Print article
Image: A peripheral blood film showing three eosinophils from a patient with eosinophilia (Photo courtesy of the University of Maryland).
Image: A peripheral blood film showing three eosinophils from a patient with eosinophilia (Photo courtesy of the University of Maryland).
A reliable way to track the course of nasal polyps in chronic sinus disease, maybe linked to rising levels of immune system white blood cells, called eosinophils, with regrowth of polyps removed by surgery.

These findings could lead to the development of a simple blood test to screen for early growth of polyps in sinus disease, track disease progression, and develop and monitor treatments for a common, often troublesome condition, called chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis.

Scientists at the University of Maryland Medical School (Baltimore, MD, USA) and their colleagues studied 61 male and female patients ages 18 to 77 with chronic sinusitis and nasal polyps who were scheduled to have surgery to remove the polyps. Fifty-eight of the patients also had asthma. They analyzed the fluctuation of peripheral blood eosinophilia (PBE) and nasal polyp load in each patient assessed preoperatively, 1 to 2 months postoperatively, and 3 to 12 months postoperatively. Nasal polyp load was assessed using computed tomography (CT) scan preoperatively and nasal endoscopy postoperatively.

The investigators measured, on average, 807 eosinophils/mm3 in patients before their sinus surgery, a level that dropped to an average of 200/mm3 one to two months after the polyps were removed. Over the next nine months, the physicians observed the eosinophils rise again to a high average of 338/mm3, presumably due to the regrowth of the nasal polyps. When nasal polyp load increased with time, we observed a stepwise increase in eosinophil counts. They found that for every time eosinophil number decreased by 100 counts/mm3 after surgery, the nasal endoscopy score dropped by 1.6 units, and, as the eosinophil levels rose again by 100 counts/mm3, the nasal endoscopy score also increased by 1.2 units.

Jean Kim, MD, PhD, an associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, and senior author of the study said, “Unlike other airway diseases, like asthma, doctors don't have a single test or biomarker for detecting and tracking sinus-related diseases. A simple blood test would provide an additional way to monitor disease progression, in addition to endoscopies and CT scans for people with symptoms that may enable the ability to screen for sinus disease with nasal polyposis at a primary care facility.” The study was published on May 13, 2016, in the journal International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology.

Related Links:
University of Maryland Medical School

Gold Member
Flocked Fiber Swabs
Puritan® Patented HydraFlock®
Verification Panels for Assay Development & QC
Seroconversion Panels
New
Centrifuge
Hematocrit Centrifuge 7511M4
New
Silver Member
Verification Panels for Assay Development & QC
Seroconversion Panels

Print article

Channels

Clinical Chemistry

view channel
Image: The tiny clay-based materials can be customized for a range of medical applications (Photo courtesy of Angira Roy and Sam O’Keefe)

‘Brilliantly Luminous’ Nanoscale Chemical Tool to Improve Disease Detection

Thousands of commercially available glowing molecules known as fluorophores are commonly used in medical imaging, disease detection, biomarker tagging, and chemical analysis. They are also integral in... Read more

Immunology

view channel
Image: The cancer stem cell test can accurately choose more effective treatments (Photo courtesy of University of Cincinnati)

Stem Cell Test Predicts Treatment Outcome for Patients with Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer frequently responds to chemotherapy initially, but eventually, the tumor develops resistance to the therapy, leading to regrowth. This resistance is partially due to the activation... Read more

Microbiology

view channel
Image: The lab-in-tube assay could improve TB diagnoses in rural or resource-limited areas (Photo courtesy of Kenny Lass/Tulane University)

Handheld Device Delivers Low-Cost TB Results in Less Than One Hour

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the deadliest infectious disease globally, affecting an estimated 10 million people annually. In 2021, about 4.2 million TB cases went undiagnosed or unreported, mainly due to... Read more

Pathology

view channel
Image: The UV absorbance spectrometer being used to measure the absorbance spectra of cell culture samples (Photo courtesy of SMART CAMP)

Novel UV and Machine Learning-Aided Method Detects Microbial Contamination in Cell Cultures

Cell therapy holds great potential in treating diseases such as cancers, inflammatory conditions, and chronic degenerative disorders by manipulating or replacing cells to restore function or combat disease.... Read more

Technology

view channel
Image: The HIV-1 self-testing chip will be capable of selectively detecting HIV in whole blood samples (Photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

Disposable Microchip Technology Could Selectively Detect HIV in Whole Blood Samples

As of the end of 2023, approximately 40 million people globally were living with HIV, and around 630,000 individuals died from AIDS-related illnesses that same year. Despite a substantial decline in deaths... Read more

Industry

view channel
Image: The collaboration aims to leverage Oxford Nanopore\'s sequencing platform and Cepheid\'s GeneXpert system to advance the field of sequencing for infectious diseases (Photo courtesy of Cepheid)

Cepheid and Oxford Nanopore Technologies Partner on Advancing Automated Sequencing-Based Solutions

Cepheid (Sunnyvale, CA, USA), a leading molecular diagnostics company, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (Oxford, UK), the company behind a new generation of sequencing-based molecular analysis technologies,... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2025 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.