Patient characteristics
| Characteristics | Controls | Patients with asthma | p-values | |||
| All | Stable | Exacerbation | For controls versus all patients | For stable versus exacerbation | ||
| Patients n | 64 | 62 | 16 | 46 | ||
| Age yrs | 42.2±11.9 | 40.1±18.6 | 30.9±21.8 | 43.3±16.6 | 0.41 | 0.06 |
| Males | 31 (48) | 29 (46) | 6 (37) | 23 (50) | 0.78 | 0.13 |
| Total serum IgE kU·L−1 | 131.5±110.4 | 506.6±444.2 | 420.5±295.0 | 536.5±484.7 | <0.001 | 0.484 |
| Eosinophils in WBC % | 2.92±1.88 | 5.29±4.33 | 5.26±1.90 | 5.30±4.92 | 0.001 | 0.26 |
| FEV1/FEV1 predicted | 0.96±0.05# | 0.68±0.14¶ | <0.001 | |||
Data are presented as mean±sd or n (%), unless otherwise stated. IgE: immunoglobulin; WBC: white blood cells; FEV1: forced expiratory volume in 1 s. Continuous data were compared using the Kruskal–Wallis test and categorical data were compared using Pearson's chi-squared test. #: Data are missing for three subjects; ¶: data are missing for one subject.