Patients' demographics and medical therapy
| All patients with ULP | Complete and incomplete | Complete fissure | Incomplete fissure | Complete vs incomplete p value* | |
| Demographics | |||||
| No. patients | 54 | 28 | 13 | 15 | – |
| No. men (%) | 37 (69) | 20 (71) | 6 (46) | 14 (93) | 0.013† |
| GOLD stage III/IV | 28/26 | 17/11 | 10/3 | 8/8 | 0.271† |
| Smoking (packet years), median (range) | 51 (10 to 160) | 48 (10 to 160) | 43 (10 to 90) | 59 (30 to 160) | 0.068‡ |
| Age (years) | 62.9±7.2 | 63.3±6.0 | 60.1±5.1 | 66.1±5.3 | 0.003 |
| BMI (kg/m2) | 24.1±4.3 | 24.4±4.6 | 23.5±4.5 | 24.8±4.8 | 0.660 |
| Medication, n (%) | |||||
| SABA | 28 (51) | 14 (50) | 8 (62) | 6 (40) | 0.449 |
| LABA | 54 (100) | 28 (100) | 13 (100) | 15 (100) | 1.0 |
| SAAC | 18 (33) | 9 (32) | 5 (38) | 4 (27) | 0.793 |
| LAAC | 51 (94) | 24 (86) | 11 (85) | 13 (87) | 1.0 |
| ICS | 46 (85) | 23 (82) | 11 (85) | 12 (80) | 1.0 |
| Theophylline | 11 (20) | 7 (25) | 2 (15) | 5 (33) | 0.516 |
| Oral steroids | 9 (17) | 4 (14) | 2 (15) | 2 (13) | 1.0 |
| Oxygen use (any) | 22 (41) | 9 (32) | 4 (30) | 5 (33) | 1.0 |
↵* Significance defined as p=0.008 when corrected for multiple comparisons.
↵† Comparison complete versus incomplete by chi-squared test with Yates correction.
↵‡ Comparison complete versus incomplete via Mann–Whitney non-parametric test.
BMI, body mass index; GOLD, Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease; ICS, inhaled corticosteroid; LAAC, long-acting anticholinergic agents; LABA, long-acting β-agonist; SAAC, short-acting anticholinergic agent; SABA, short-acting β-agonist; ULP, upper lobe predominant.