Identification of the molecular subgroups in asthma by gene expression profiles: airway inflammation implications

BMC Pulmonary Medicine

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the patients in different clusters

Variables	Total	Cluster I	Cluster II	χ²/z/t	P value^a
Number	47	17	30
Age, year, median (Q1, Q3)	60 (49, 68)	68 (63, 77)	56 (43, 63)	− 3.369	0.001
Gender, n (%)				0.021	0.886
Female	27	10 (58.8)	17 (56.7)
Male	20	7 (41.2)	13 (43.3)
Smoking status, n (%)				0.221	0.638
Never	27	9 (52.9)	18 (60)
Former/current	20	8 (47.1)	12 (40)
Airway inflammation, n (%)^b
Eosinophilic	17	10 (58.8)	7 (23.3)	5.794	0.015
Neutrophilic	12	7 (41.2)	5 (16.7)	3.365	0.067
Paucigranulocytic	18	0 (0)	18 (60.0)	16.179	< 0.001
Mixed Granulocytic	0	0 (0)	0 (0)	3.596	0.0579

^aCompared between Cluster I and Cluster II
^bAsthma inflammatory phenotype was assigned based on a sputum eosinophil cutoff of greater than 2% and a sputum neutrophil cutoff of greater than 61%

ISSN: 1471-2466