ORIGINAL ARTICLE Association Between Clinical Severity of Childhood Asthma and Serum Leptin Levels Asya Tanju & Ferhat Cekmez & Secil Aydinoz & Ferhan Karademir & Selami Suleymanoglu & Ismail Gocmen Received: 27 March 2010 / Accepted: 13 October 2010 / Published online: 27 October 2010 # Dr. K C Chaudhuri Foundation 2010 Abstract Objective To investigate the association between the clin- ical severity of childhood asthma and serum leptin levels, to define whether the severity of asthma correlates with body mass index (BMI) or serum leptin levels and to examine the sensitivity of leptin levels in predicting asthma severity. Methods This study was conducted in 65 patients, aged 2 to 14 yrs with newly diagnosed asthma without any chronic co-morbidity. The subjects were distributed into three groups according to the severity of asthma. Results Intra-group serum leptin levels before and after treatment did not show significant difference (p >0.05). Inter-group pre-treatment leptin levels were different significantly (p <0.01) and the difference originated from Group I and III as well as Group II and III. No correlation existed between leptin levels and BMI (p >0.05). Conclusions Leptin levels correlated with the clinical severity of asthma and this was suggested to be associated with the severity of inflammation in asthma. More studies are required to evaluate leptin levels in predicting asthma severity. Keywords Asthma . Leptin . Obesity Introduction Bronchial asthma is a chronic lung disease characterized with increased responsiveness of respiratory tract to various stimulants and with airway obstruction and inflammation improving spontaneously or with treatment. In fact, asthma should be evaluated as a clinical syndrome and it is a group of diseases with common symptoms, based on different etiological and pathogenic mechanisms. Recent studies have demonstrated the co-existence of asthma and obesity and discussions have started on the association of asthma and obesity [1–6]. Leptin, a hormone affecting appetite and energy consumption, which is related to body fat mass, is also a subject of this discussion. Some studies have demonstrated that leptin is not only involved in energy metabolism and its concomitance with asthma has been questioned [7–9]. In these patients, leptin and obesity relationship was investigated. Then, discussions led to the question whether hyperleptinemia accompanying obesity had a role in the etiology of asthma or it was a result of hyperinflammatory state in asthma and obesity [1–3, 6]. In the present study, the authors evaluated the relation- ship between the severity of asthma and serum leptin levels, changes in leptin levels during treatment, the relation of leptin levels, besides asthma severity, with BMI, and the sensitivity of serum leptin levels in repdicting the severity of asthma Material and Methods This study, conducted from September 2004 through May 2006 in GATA Haydarpasa Teaching Hospital Department of Pediatrics, included children aged 2 to 14 years, with a recent asthma diagnosis and followed up for the disease, A. Tanju : F. Cekmez : S. Aydinoz : F. Karademir : S. Suleymanoglu : I. Gocmen Department of Pediatrics, GATA Haydarpasa Teaching Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey F. Cekmez (*) GATA Medical Faculty, Istanbul, Turkey e-mail: ferhat_cocuk@hotmail.com Indian J Pediatr (March 2011) 78:291–295 DOI 10.1007/s12098-010-0281-0