Counts of neutrophil elastase (NE)+ and anti-eosinophil cationic protein (EG2)+ cells per mm2 epithelium and subepithelium
| Group | n | NE+ cells | EG2+ cells | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Epithelium | Subepithelium | Epithelium | Subepithelium | ||
| E-asthma, patients with asthma with an acute severe exacerbation; S-asthma, patients with stable asthma; NSC, non-smoking surgical controls. | |||||
| Values are median (range). | |||||
| *p<0.0001, p = 0.015, p<0.0001, p<0.0001, respectively, vs NSC. | |||||
| †p = 0.006 and p<0.0001, respectively, vs NSC. | |||||
| ‡p = 0.04 (NE+ in epithelium), p = 0.002(NE+ in subepithelium) and p = 0.005(EG2 in epithelium), respectively, vs S-asthma group. | |||||
| §p = 0.0028 vs numbers of NE+ cells in subepithelium of S-asthma group. | |||||
| E-Asthma | 15 | 7 (0–380)*‡ | 78 (10–898)*‡ | 31 (0–167)*‡ | 60 (6–351)* |
| S-Asthma | 15 | 0 (0–104) | 6 (0–70)† | 0 (0–96) | 38 (2–163)†§ |
| NSC | 15 | 0 (0–10) | 0 (0–7) | 0 (0–18) | 0 (0–3) |