Table 1 Characteristics of the study population
From: The lower airways microbiota and antimicrobial peptides indicate dysbiosis in sarcoidosis
| Â | Sarcoidosis | Controls | Â |
|---|---|---|---|
| Â | n = 35 | n = 35 | p* |
Male | 74 % | 49 % | 0.03 |
Age, mean years (SD§) | 55.3 (10.9) | 66.3 (7.6) | < 0.01 |
Pulmonary function, mean % of predicted (SD§) | |||
 FEV1 | 85 (15.4) | 103 (11.5) | < 0.01 |
 FVC | 98 (13.8) | 111 (12.5) | < 0.01 |
 DLCO | 88 (11.9) | 94 (13.1) | 0.09 |
Smoking habits | Â | Â | < 0.01 |
 Current smoker | 6% | 23 % |  |
 Ex smoker | 46% | 66 % |  |
 Never smoker | 48% | 11 % |  |
BAL cell content %, mean (SD§) | |||
 Macrophages | 71.8 (19.5) | 83.6 (11.5) | < 0.01 |
 Neutrophils | 4.5 (13.6) | 3.8 (4.6) | 0.80 |
 Lymphocytes | 22.2 (18.7) | 12.1 (9.2) | < 0.01 |
 Eosinophils | 1.5 (2.3) | 0.5 (0.8) | 0.02 |
Antimicrobial peptides in BAL, median (IQR§) | |||
 SLPI†, ng/ml | 95 (48–175) | 187 (144–241) | < 0.01 |
 hBD-1‡, pg/ml | 153 (108–331) | 329 (235–500) | < 0.01 |
 hBD-2‡, pg/ml | 10 (10–10) | 10 (10–10) | 0.38 |
Inflammatory marker in plasma, mean (SD§) | |||
 Leukocyte particle count (LPK), 10^9/L | 5.5 (2.1) | 6.5 (2.0) | 0.05 |