The % of voxels with density < —910 HU was termed the chest CT scan %. Nine out of 10 subjects with COPD-E had a year 0 chest CT scan > 10%. One out of 10 subjects had a year 0 chest CT scan of 7.1%.
(Fig 4B), and IL-8 (Fig 4C) at baseline and at year 4 compared with either the normal nonsmoking group or the normal current smoker group. There was no significant difference in levels of sputum MPO in comparing baseline sputum MPO and sputum MPO levels at year 4 (P = .90) (Fig 4A), but, interestingly, there was an increase in levels of sputum LTB4 (P = .04) (Fig 4B) and IL-8 (P = .05) (Fig 4C) in comparing baseline and year 4 sputum levels Canadian Pharmacy cialis.
Persistent Sputum Mononuclear Cell Chemoattractants (MCP-1) and Metalloproteases (MMP-9) in Subjects With COPD-E Who Quit Smoking for 4 Years.
Subjects with COPD-E had statistically significantly higher levels of the mononuclear cell chemoattractant MCP-1 (Fig 5A) and the metalloprotease MMP-9 (Fig 5B) in sputum at baseline and at year 4 compared with either the normal nonsmoking group or the normal current smoker group. There was no significant difference in levels of sputum MCP-1 in comparing baseline sputum MCP-1 and year 4 sputum MCP-1 levels (P = .80) (Fig 5A), but there was a significant increase in levels of sputum MMP-9 in comparing baseline sputum MMP-9 and year 4 sputum MMP-9 levels (P = .008) (Fig 5B).
Cotinine Assay and History of Quitting Cigarette Smoking
Each of the subjects in the normal current smoking group (median 41 pack-years; range 25-264 pack-years) and in the COPD-E group (median 61 pack-years; range 34-112 pack-years) had > 20 pack-year history of smoking at entry into the study. At the baseline visit the cotinine assay confirmed that the normal current smoking group had high levels of serum cotinine (224 ± 51 ng/mL), whereas this was not the case in either the normal nonsmoking group (< 10 ng/mL) or the subjects with COPD-E (< 10 ng/mL) who were all former smokers who had quit > 2 years ago (Table 1). The subjects with COPD-E had a mean duration of having quit smoking at entry into the study of 15.1 ± 7.7 years (by history at entry into study not verified by cotinine assay).