Blood Eosinophil Count as a Predictive Biomarker of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Exacerbation in a Real-World Setting

Table 1

Comparison of patient characteristics and comorbidities between nonexacerbators and exacerbators.

	Nonexacerbators (n = 249)	Exacerbators (n = 22)	value
General information
Age	73 (52–92)	77 (51–89)	0.110
Male/female	219/30	22/0	0.068
Smoking history (Pack-year)	49 (0–220)	49 (20–96)	0.660
BMI (kg/m^2)	22.1 (14.8–34.6)	21.7 (14.2–38.0)	0.560
Examinations
VC (L)	3.04 (1.16–5.24)	2.81 (1.71–4.18)	0.139
%VC (%)	91.4 (40.4–154.1)	81.5 (53.2–125.1)	0.036
FEV1 (L)	1.61 (0.51–5.06)	1.31 (0.73–2.65)	0.015
FEV1/FVC (%)	58.48 (25.69–69.98)	46.39 (32.72–68.26)	0.002
%FEV1 (%)	64.6 (41.4–137.2)	45.6 (29.3–111.8)	0.001
Blood eosinophil (μL)	180 (10–3210)	230 (40–1060)	0.436
WBC (μL)	6250 (2300–15200)	6700 (3000–10400)	0.55
CRP (mg/dl)	0.2 (0.1–5.6)	0.25 (0.1–5.3)	0.20
Comorbidities
HT	73 (29%)	7 (32%)	0.488
DM	30 (12%)	3 (14%)	0.518
BPH	45 (18%)	5 (22%)	0.382
Glaucoma	10 (4%)	1 (5%)	0.613
BA	33 (13%)	5 (23%)	0.178
IP	21 (8%)	1 (5%)	0.448

Note. Data are shown as median (range). Significant differences are marked using the bold font. BMI, body mass index; VC, vital capacity; %VC, VC/predicted VC; FEV1, forced expiratory volume in 1 s; FVC, forced vital capacity; %FEV1, FEV1/predicted FEV1; WBC, white blood cell; CRP, C-reactive protein; HT, hypertension; DM, diabetes mellitus; BPH, benign prostatic hyperplasia; BA, bronchial asthma; IP, interstitial pneumonia.