Bronchial inflammation according to exacerbation frequency (patients with no bronchial dilatation)
| MPO (units/ml) | Elastase (nM) | LTB4(nM) |
IL-8 (nM) | SLPI (μM) | Sol:serum albumin ratio (%) | |
| Frequent (n=8) | 0.37 (0.16–0.49) | 0.00 (0.00–6.40) | 2.7 (0.9–5.6) | 2.2 (0.9–6.2) | 2.2 (1.4–3.8) | 0.30 (0.30–0.68) |
| Infrequent (n=24) | 0.30 (0.14–0.66) | 0.00 (0.00–6.83) | 4.5 (1.9–6.8) | 2.7 (0.9–6.5) | 4.54-150 (3.2–5.5) | 0.59 (0.28–1.21) |
MPO = myeloperoxidase; LTB4 = leukotriene B4; IL-8 = interleukin 8; SLPI = secretory leukoprotease inhibitor.
Frequent exacerbators had suffered from ⩾3 exacerbations in the previous 12 months; infrequent exacerbators from ⩽2 exacerbations.
The concentrations of the inflammatory mediators are shown as median (IQR).
↵4-150 Concentration of sputum SLPI was significantly lower in the infrequent exacerbators (p<0.05).