Fractional areas of extracellular matrix components within the airway smooth muscle in fatal asthma(FA), nonfatal asthma (NFA) and nonasthma control (NAC) cases
| Fractional area % | p-value# | |||
| FA | NFA | NAC | ||
| Elastic fibres | ||||
| Large airway | 17.6±15.5+,§ | 2.2±0.9 | 5.5±6.0 | 0.001 |
| Small airway | 14.2±12.4ƒ | 3.1±2.8 | 8.7±9.7 | 0.019 |
| p-value¶ | 0.791 | 0.905 | 0.035 | |
| Total collagen | ||||
| Large airway | 7.7±4.3 | 5.2±2.1 | 7.5±5.9 | 0.33 |
| Small airway | 9.1±4.8 | 6.2±5.1 | 7.2±4.5 | 0.21 |
| p-value¶ | 0.517 | 0.924 | 0.106 | |
| Fibronectin | ||||
| Large airway | 6.2±7.0 | 2.1±1.8 | 0.034 | |
| Small airway | 5.1±7.8 | 4.0±8.7 | 0.056 | |
| p-value¶ | 0.188 | 0.439 | ||
| Versican | ||||
| Large airway | 2.6±2.3 | 1.0±0.7 | 0.12 | |
| Small airway | 5.0±3.1 | 2.8±1.6 | 0.073 | |
| p-value¶ | 0.005 | 0.033 | ||
| Type-I collagen | ||||
| Large airway | 1.5 (0.3–2.0) | 0.7 (0.4–1.3) | 0.63 | |
| Small airway | 11.0±6.7 | 11.0±8.9 | 0.38 | |
| p-value¶ | 0.0001 | 0.018 | ||
| Type-III collagen | ||||
| Large airway | 0.2 (0.2–0.5) | 1.0 (0.4–1.5) | 0.068 | |
| Small airway | 7.0±7.0 | 8.0±4.7 | 0.71 | |
| p-value¶ | 0.001 | 0.011 | ||
Data are presented as mean±sd or median (interquartile range), unless otherwise stated. #: ANOVA, unpaired t-test or Mann–Whitney U-test for comparison among the patient groups; ¶: paired t-test or Wilcoxon test for comparison of large airway versus small airway; +: p = 0.002 for FA versus NFA; §: p = 0.007 for FA versus NAC; ƒ: p = 0.019 for FA versus NFA.