Abstract:
Objective: To correlate serum levels of YKL-40 with anthropometric measurements and spirometric indices between
normal individuals and asthmatics.
Methodology: The case control study was conducted in Department of Chest Medicine, JPMC, Karachi from the month
of August 2015 till March 2016. The study recruited sixty participants after satisfying the inclusion and exclusion criteria;
among those 30 were normal healthy individuals (PEF > 80% and pulse rate of 60 – 80 beats per minutes); while equal
were cases of mild to moderate asthma (PEF more than 50% and pulse rate of 100 – 120 beats per minutes) matched for
age and gender. Vitallograph compacta and peak flow meter was used for spirometric indices. Moreover, anthropometric
measurements were age, gender, weight (kg), height (m) and body mass index (kg/m2). Ykl-40 Elisa kit was used for serum
YKL 40 levels. The data was entered and analysed using SPSS version 21 (IBM, Chicago, IL).
Result: In comparison of Spirometric Evaluation (FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC% and PEFR) between control and patients with
mild to moderate asthma. significant difference was found in the mean values of FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC and PEFR
between cases and controls. Significant inverse correlation was found between YKL-40 with FEV1, FVC, FEVI/FVC%
and PEFR among Controls. YKL-40 was found to be significantly correlated with only FEV1/ FVC (%) among cases with
correlation co-efficient as – 0.510 (p-value < 0.004).
Conclusion: There is an inverse correlation between serum YKL-40 levels and spirometric evaluation thus as the inflammation
in asthma increases, YKL-40 level upsurges and causes decrease in lung function tests.