Grantee Research Project Results
2007 Progress Report: Environmental Tobacco Smoke, Biomarkers, and Childhood Asthma
EPA Grant Number: R830826Title: Environmental Tobacco Smoke, Biomarkers, and Childhood Asthma
Investigators: Klonoff-Cohen, Hillary , Platzker, Arnold
Current Investigators: Klonoff-Cohen, Hillary
Institution: University of California - San Diego
EPA Project Officer: Aja, Hayley
Project Period: July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2009 (Extended to June 30, 2010)
Project Period Covered by this Report: July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007
Project Amount: $750,000
RFA: Biomarkers for the Assessment of Exposure and Toxicity in Children (2002) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Children's Health , Human Health
Objective:
The use of biomarkers may have important implications for the detection, prevention, and treatment of environmentally induced diseases in children. This research will identify and evaluate two biomarkers, urine eosinophil protein X (uEPX) and serum eosinophil cationic protein (sECP) that may play a role in predicting childhood asthma. Secondly, ECP and EPX will be measured in infants to assess whether early lung inflammation from asthma is compounded by ETS exposure in utero and/or postnatally.
Progress Summary:
We have currently recruited one-half of the total sample. Recruitment issues have hampered our progress, primarily because of: (1) insufficient staff at multiple sites; and (2) lack of eligible asthmatics in the pulmonary clinics. Thus, these are the solutions that were put in place. We have just placed a nurse practitioner student at a large site in San Diego to assist with recruitment of asthmatic and healthy children. We are branching out into the Scripps network to determine other eligible sites. A new junior pulmonologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has joined the staff in September and is excited about helping on the project. We are also re-exploring the option of conducting the study at Children’s Hospital in San Diego with the Emergency Department. We have hired three pre-med student volunteers, a bilingual asthma coordinator, and a public health graduate to assist on the project. They are all approaching new emergency room and pediatric sites as well as spending a great deal of time recruiting eligible patients at the existing sites.
Future Activities:
Vigorous recruitment of the remaining eligible patients will continue in order to fulfill the desired final sample size and begin preliminary statistical analyses. If the project confirms that asthmatic infants exposed to ETS in utero have the highest serum ECP and urine EPX values, unexposed asthmatics and ETS-exposed healthy children will have intermediate values, and healthy unexposed infants will have the lowest serum ECP and urine EPX values at baseline. These inflammatory markers in urine and blood could be easily introduced into the clinical arena of pediatric pulmonary medicine.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 3 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
inflammatory markers, environmental tobacco smoke, pediatric asthma,Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.
Project Research Results
- Final
- 2009
- 2008 Progress Report
- 2006 Progress Report
- 2005 Progress Report
- 2004 Progress Report
- Original Abstract
1 journal articles for this project