Table 1.
Demographic and clinical data of healthy subjects and COPD patients.
Table 2.
Exhaled particle data.
Fig 1.
Box plots of particle number concentrations among healthy subjects and among COPD patients according to stage.
Healthy subjects (n = 11) and patients with COPD stage 2 (n = 2), stage 3 (n = 5) and stage 4 (n = 6) were included. Horizontal lines represent the median, diamond shapes represent the mean, boxes represent the interquartile range and whiskers represent the range.
Fig 2.
Correlation between FEV1% pred and exhaled particles per exhalation.
There was a significant association between FEV1% pred and exhaled particles per exhalation among COPD patients which was fairly high (rs = 0.72; p = 0.0055). The corresponding association among healthy subjects was not significant (rs = 0.073; p = 0.83).
Table 3.
SP-A and albumin concentrations in exhaled particles.
Fig 3.
Box plots of SP-A concentrations among healthy subjects and COPD patients according to stage.
Panel (A) shows SP-A mass concentration (pg/L) and panel (B) shows SP-A weight percent (wt%). Healthy subjects (n = 11) and patients with COPD stage 2 (n = 2), stage 3 (n = 5) and stage 4 (n = 6) were included. Horizontal lines represent the median, diamond shapes represent the mean, boxes represent the interquartile range and whiskers represent the range.
Fig 4.
Correlation between FVC % pred and SP-A weight percent.
There was a significant association between FVC % pred and SP-A weight percent wt% (rs = 0.57; p = 0.041) among COPD patients. The corresponding association among healthy subjects was not significant (rs = -0.42; p = 0.17).