About the Authors

Masami Kameda

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft

‡ These authors share first authorship on this work.

Affiliation Department of Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

Mitsuo Otsuka

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

‡ These authors share first authorship on this work.

Affiliation Department of Respiratory Medicine, Sapporo-Kosei General Hospital, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

Hirofumi Chiba

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation

‡ These authors share first authorship on this work.

Affiliation Department of Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

Koji Kuronuma

Roles Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

kuronumak@sapmed.ac.jp

Affiliation Department of Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

Takehiro Hasegawa

Roles Investigation, Methodology

Affiliation Sysmex Corporation, Kobe, Japan

Hiroki Takahashi

Roles Investigation, Supervision

Affiliation Department of Rheumatology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

Hiroki Takahashi

Roles Conceptualization, Supervision

Affiliation Department of Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

Competing Interests

Masami Kameda, Mitsuo Otsuka, and Takehiro Hasegawa have a pending patent application belonging to Sysmex Corporation and Sapporo Medical University. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on materials.