Exhaled nitric oxide levels among adults with excessive alcohol consumption

Publication date: Available online 19 February 2016
Source:Chest
Author(s): Majid Afshar, Jill A. Poole, Guichan Cao, Ramon Durazo, Richard C. Cooper, Elizabeth J. Kovacs, Joseph H. Sisson
BackgroundOver a quarter of the US population qualify as excessive alcohol consumers. Alcohol use impacts several lung diseases and heavy consumption has been associated with poor clinical outcomes. The fractional excretion of exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) has clinical implications in multiple airway diseases. We hypothesized that excessive alcohol intake is associated with lower FeNO levels.MethodsTo test this hypothesis, we examined a sample of 12,059 participants interviewed between 2007 and 2012 from the National Health and Examination Survey aged 21 to 79 years old. Two valid FeNO measurements that were reproducible were recorded. Alcohol questionnaire data were used to define the following alcohol groups: never drinkers, non-excessive drinkers, excessive drinkers, and former excessive drinkers. Natural logarithm (ln) of FeNO values as well as blood eosinophil count and C-reactive protein were used as dependent variables to test the association with alcohol groups including multivariable linear regression models with adjustment for predictors of FeNO.ResultsExcessive alcohol consumption comprised 26.9% (3693) of the United States sample population. Controlling for all other factors, excessive alcohol consumption had a negative association and was an independent predictor for ln (FeNO) levels in comparison to the never drinker group (-0.11, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) -0.17, -0.06, p<0.001). Ln (FeNO) levels decreased across categories of increasing alcohol use (p<0.001).ConclusionsAccounting for alcohol use in the interpretation of FeNO levels should be an additional consideration, and further investigations are warranted to explore the complex interaction between alcohol and nitric oxide in the airways.



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