PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - M. Wencker
AU  - A. Marx
AU  - N. Konietzko
AU  - B. Schaefer
AU  - E.J. Campbell
TI  - Screening for α<sub>1</sub>‐Pi deficiency in patients with lung diseases
AID  - 10.1183/09031936.02.02012001
DP  - 2002 Aug 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - 319--324
VI  - 20
IP  - 2
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/20/2/319.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/20/2/319.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2002 Aug 01; 20
AB  - In patients with pulmonary emphysema, studies have reported 2–3% of individuals with severe α1‐Pi deficiency. The aims of this study were to evaluate the accuracy of a new method for quantifying α1‐Pi through phenotyping from dried blood spots (DBS) and to test the hypothesis that the screening of a population at risk increases the detection rate for severe α1‐Pi deficiency. The accuracy of phenotyping results from DBS was compared to conventional methods in a total of 555 individuals. In a prospective study 1,060 patients with chronic lung disease were screened for α1‐Pi deficiency using DBS. The validation of the phenotyping method from DBS showed an accuracy of 100%. Out of 1,060 tested patients, none had a severe PiZ deficiency and only 3 had PiSZ, whilst 36 (3.34%) individuals were identified as heterozygous for PiMS and 39 (3.68%) for PiMZ. No patients with severe α1‐Pi deficiency could be detected in this population and the frequency of PiMS or PiMZ detected was similar to that of the normal population. Thus, the screening of an unselected population of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma patients may not detect a large number of individuals with severe α1‐Pi deficiency. The study was supported by a grant from Bayer Corp., Research Triangle Park, NC, USA. E.J. Campbell's work was supported by PHS grant HL 46440.