Bronchial inflammatory cell counts of current smokers and ex-smokers with COPD
| Cell marker | Current smokers | Ex-smokers(combined group) | Ex-smokers(quit <3.5 years) | Ex-smokers(quit ⩾3.5 years) | p value‡ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data are presented as median cell number/0.1 mm2 (IQR). Ex-smokers are divided into two groups based on median duration of smoking cessation (3.5 years). | |||||
| *p<0.05 compared with COPD current smokers (two tailed unpaired t tests of log transformed data, square root in case of CD8/CD3). | |||||
| †p<0.05 compared with COPD ex-smokers who quit <3.5 years (two tailed unpaired t tests of log transformed data, square root in case of CD8/CD3). | |||||
| ‡p value from one-way ANOVA (Kruskal-Wallis test in case of EG2) of log transformed data (square root in case of CD8/CD3) between current smokers and ex-smokers of <3.5 and ⩾3.5 years with COPD. | |||||
| CD3 | 108 (61–164) | 149 (88–225)* | 137 (93–229) | 170 (62–221) | 0.097 |
| CD4 | 40 (25–66) | 58 (32–90)* | 64 (30–111)* | 54 (32–75) | 0.045 |
| CD8 | 20 (11–37) | 24 (8.8–41) | 34 (18–54)* | 16 (7.8–32)† | 0.023 |
| CD4/CD8 | 2.0 (1.1–3.7) | 2.7 (1.3–5.0) | 2.1 (1.2–3.3) | 3.1 (1.8–6.4) | 0.065 |
| CD4/CD3 | 0.4 (0.3–0.6) | 0.4 (0.3–0.8) | 0.5 (0.3–0.8) | 0.4 (0.3–0.6) | 0.680 |
| CD8/CD3 | 0.2 (0.1–0.3) | 0.2 (0.1–0.3) | 0.3 (0.2–0.4) | 0.1 (0.1–0.2)*† | 0.008 |
| NE (neutrophils) | 4.0 (2.0–7.8) | 4.5 (2.0–9.0) | 5.0 (2.6–9.0) | 4.0 (1.8–9.8) | 0.289 |
| CD68 (macrophages) | 8.5 (4.1–12) | 11 (5.8–18) | 11 (5.8–17) | 8.5 (5.8–18) | 0.124 |
| EG2 (eosinophils) | 1.3 (0.5–3.0) | 2.0 (0.5–5.5) | 1.5 (0.5–2.8) | 3.5 (0.5–11) | 0.183 |
| AA1 (mast cells) | 28 (20–34) | 26 (18–35) | 28 (22–36) | 24 (14–33) | 0.303 |
| CD138 (plasma cells) | 7.5 (3.1–14) | 9.0 (5.5–20)* | 7.8 (4.0–11) | 12 (7.8–24)* | 0.013 |