Correlation between blood eosinophils, T-helper cell activity markers and pulmonary function in patients with allergic and intrinsic asthma.

We studied 21 asthmatic patients (17 with allergic asthma and 4 with intrinsic asthma) who on the date of admittance to our clinic presented eosinophil values higher than 400 eosinophils/mm3 and a marked alteration in pulmonary function. From the day of admittance, eosinophils/mm3 were followed-up for 28-30 days, along with T-helper cell activity markers (IL-2R+) and pulmonary function markers. In patients with allergic asthma with or without topical corticoid treatment, and in patients with intrinsic asthma under treatment with topical corticoids, we observed that the number of eosinophils/mm3 and the number of activity markers (IL-2R+) decreased progressively, with subsequent clinical recovery and improvement in pulmonary function. This was not observed in patients with intrinsic asthma not treated with topical corticoids. We conclude that, as previously demonstrated, the activation and proliferation of eosinophils bear a close relationship with the previous activation of T-helper cells (CD4).