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Nitric oxide but not carbon monoxide is continuously released in the human nasal airways

¹ Dept Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institute and ² Dept Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

CORRESPONDENCE: J.O.N. Lundberg, Dept Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet 171 77, Stockholm, Sweden. Fax: 46 8332278. E-mail: jon.lundberg@fyfa.ki.se

Keywords: asthma, breath test, exhaled air, rhinitis, sinuses, sinusitis

Received: November 8, 2001
Accepted February 13, 2002

This study was supported by grants from The Swedish Research Council, The Heart & Lung Foundation, The Karolinska Institutet and Ruth & Richard Juhlins Foundation.

Results from different laboratories indicate that nitric oxide (NO) and carbon monoxide (CO) coexist in the human airways both in health and disease. These gases are present in exhaled human breath and high concentrations of NO as well as CO have been reported in the nasal airways. In addition, exhaled CO and NO are increased in patients with airways inflammation. NO and CO were measured simultaneously in orally exhaled air and in air sampled from the nose in 18 healthy subjects using chemiluminescence (for NO) and infrared (for CO) techniques at different fixed flow rates. The acute effects of smoking on airway release of NO and CO were also studied.

Nasal NO was detected in all subjects and the concentrations were highly flow-dependent (mean±sem: 236±23 and 527±49 parts per billion (ppb), at 2 and 0.5 L·min^–1, respectively). In contrast, no evidence of CO release in the nasal airways regardless of sample flow rate was found. In fact, additional experiments indicated a net absorption of CO when low levels of this gas were flushed through the nasal cavity. Nasal CO also remained undetectable after smoking. Both NO (22±2 ppb) and CO (1.1±0.1 parts per million) were consistently found in orally exhaled air. CO, but not NO, levels increased acutely after smoking a cigarette.

The authors conclude that the patterns of nitric oxide and carbon monoxide release in the airways seem to differ profoundly in healthy subjects. Orally exhaled air contains both nitric oxide and carbon dioxide whereas nasal air contains nitric oxide only.

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