Introduction:

Occupational asthma (AO) is the most predominant work-related respiratory illness in developing countries. It shows up mainly due to the inhalation of agents like isocyanate, a compound used during automobile painting application and widely used in the vehicle body repair industry. Its diagnosis is multifactorial. The nitric oxide fraction concentration in exhaled breath (FeNO) as a marker of respiratory inflammation is a simple, fast and non-invasive method. This paper summarizes the scientific evidence on the usefulness of FeNO in the assessment of isocyanate induced asthma.

Material and Methods:

A systematic review of the published scientific literature was carried out in 6 databases, using search equations in terms of MeSH. The references were filtered and the articles were selected based on the objectives of the study and on the highest scientific evidence according to SIGN.

Results:

45 references were retrieved and 8 were included in the review; 7 of them were of transversal design. With the exception of one of them, there was a statistically significant association between bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHP) and FeNO in isocyanate exposed workers in all articles.

Conclusions:

Despite the limitations of the reviewed studies regarding design type, sample size and objectives, it is showed that there is scientific evidence supporting the validity of FeNO in the assessment of occupational asthma by isocyanates.