Compartment differences of inflammatory activity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Respiratory Research

Table 1 Characteristics of the participants

	Healthy non-smokers	Smokers without COPD	Smokers with COPD
Subjects n	n = 23	n = 29	n = 28
Age yrs Mean (range)	55 (41-72)	53 (38-66)	61 (48-73)**###
Gender male/female	15/8	14/15	11/17
BMI Mean (range)	25.0 (19.7-31.2)	25.1 (20.4-32.7)	23.7 (17.3-29.7)
Smoking(pack-yrs) Mean (range)	0	36 (5-120)	37 (15-60)
FEV_1% predicted (post- bronchodilator)	102 (97-106)	96 (91-100)	58***### (51-65)
FEV₁/FVC (post-bronchodilator)	0.80 (0.77-0.82)	0.77 (0.75-0.79)	0.55***### (0.51-0.58)

Results are presented as mean and 95% confidence intervals or range.
Between groups comparisons were assessed by ANOVA and Fisher’s PLSD.
BMI: Body mass index; FVC: Forced Vital Capacity; FEV₁: Forced Expiratory Volume in one second.
**, ***indicate P < 0.01 and P < 0.001, respectively, compared with healthy non-smokers.
### indicate P < 0.001 compared with smokers without COPD.

ISSN: 1465-993X