Revisión de biomarcadores en asma y EPOC

In the latest years, high quantities of biomarkers have been studied in Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). A good biomarker should have the following characteristics: 1) clinical relevance, sensibility and specificity, c) reliability and reproducibility, d) easy to measure and to obtain. The samples in which the biomarkers can be determined are from different sources (lung biopsy, bronchoalveolar lavage, sputum, exhaled breath, urine, and blood). The biomarkers can offer complementary information in order to achieve diagnosis, stage, progression, and disease activity as well as response to treatment. In this report, we review the principal reports on biomarkers in asthma and COPD. A search for articles published between the years 1989-2013 using the Medline database. In this article we review the main biomarkers in asthma and COPD