TABLE 1

Study demographics

	No current infection	Infected^#	p-value	No NE activity	Free NE activity^¶	p-value
Subjects n	33	31		32	32
Age years	2.28±2.24⁺	3.53±1.92⁺	0.0200	2.93±2.19	2.97±2.27	0.9497
Sex female/male	13/20	16/15	0.4515	18/14	11/21	0.1313
Phe508del homozygous	17 (51.52)	16 (51.61)	1.0000	17 (53.13)	16 (50.00)	1.0000
IL-8 ng·mL^-1	1.80 (0.43–2.85)	1.88 (0.93–4.68)	0.4848	1.03 (0.28–1.87)^§	2.87 (1.83–4.92)^§	<0.0001
NE activity nM	3.39 (3.39–39.66)⁺	95.93 (3.39–179.80)⁺	0.0196	3.39 (3.39–3.39)^§	102.50 (45.85–336.90)^§	<0.0001
Neutrophils ×10³ cells·mL^-1	116.50 (16.83–163.04)	160.92 (39.47–861.49)	0.1224	34.71 (9.62–100.34)^§	240.45 (129.73–870.74)^§	<0.0001
Pseudomonas positive	1 (3.03)⁺	7 (22.58)⁺	0.0245	2 (6.25)	6 (18.75)	0.2565
Bronchiectasis present	16 (48.48)⁺	25 (80.65)⁺	0.0096	21 (65.63)	20 (62.50)	1.0000
Bronchiectasis score	1.00 (0.00–1.75)⁺	2.00 (1.00–10.00)⁺	0.0007	1.00 (0.00–2.00)^§	2.00 (1.00–10.00)^§	0.0084

Data are presented as n, mean±sd, n (%) or median (interquartile range). Values in bold are statistically significant. NE: neutrophil elastase; IL: interleukin. ^#: bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) with >10⁴ bacterial CFU·mL^-1; ^¶: BALF with >200 ng·mL^-1 (>6.78 nM); ⁺: statistical significance between no current infection and infected; ^§: statistical significance between no NE activity and free NE activity.