About the Authors

Andriana I. Papaioannou

papaioannouandriana@gmail.com

Affiliation 2nd Respiratory Medicine Department, “Attikon” University Hospital, Athens Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Konstantinos Kostikas

Affiliation 2nd Respiratory Medicine Department, “Attikon” University Hospital, Athens Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Effrosyni D. Manali

Affiliation 2nd Respiratory Medicine Department, “Attikon” University Hospital, Athens Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Georgia Papadaki

Affiliation 2nd Respiratory Medicine Department, “Attikon” University Hospital, Athens Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Aneza Roussou

Affiliation 2nd Respiratory Medicine Department, “Attikon” University Hospital, Athens Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Aris Spathis

Affiliation Department of Cytopathology, “Attikon” University Hospital, Athens Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Argyro Mazioti

Affiliation Department of Radiology, “Attikon” University Hospital, Athens Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Ioannis Tomos

Affiliation 2nd Respiratory Medicine Department, “Attikon” University Hospital, Athens Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Ilias Papanikolaou

Affiliation Respiratory Medicine Department, “Corfu General Hospital”, Corfu, Greece

Stelios Loukides

Affiliation 2nd Respiratory Medicine Department, “Attikon” University Hospital, Athens Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Kyriakos Chainis

Affiliation Respiratory Medicine Department, “Corfu General Hospital”, Corfu, Greece

Petros Karakitsos

Affiliation Department of Cytopathology, “Attikon” University Hospital, Athens Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Matthias Griese

Affiliation Hauner Children’s University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, German Center for Lung Research, Lindwurmstrasse 4, 80337, Munich, Germany

Spyros Papiris

Affiliation 2nd Respiratory Medicine Department, “Attikon” University Hospital, Athens Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: GP AR AM IT IP SL KC. Wrote the paper: AIP KK EM SP. Performed the samples measurement and results interpretation: AS PK. Performed the statistical analysis: AIP MG.