Table 1 Demographic and deployment characteristics and pulmonary function in controls and symptomatic deployers overall and by diagnostic sub-group

Demographic characteristics

  Age (years)

58.1

(± 6.7)

42.0

(± 10.2)

 < 0.0001

39.4

(± 9.2)

45.2

(± 10.5)

 < 0.0001^abc

 Male

37 (82%)

71 (87%)

0.51

40 (89%)

31 (84%)

0.65

 Smoking status

  Never

28 (62%)

56 (68%)

0.74

33 (73%)

23 (62%)

0.77⁺

  Former

13 (29%)

21 (26%)

10 (22%)

11 (30%)

 Current

4 (9%)

5 (6%)

2 (4%)

3 (8%)

 Pack-years

25.8

(± 21.8)

8.4

(± 13.0)

0.007

5.2

(± 3.6)

11.2

(± 17.3)

0.006

 BMI (kg/m²)

28.1

(± 6.2)

31.0

(± 5.0)

0.01

30.4

(± 5.0)

31.6

(± 5.0)

0.01

Deployment characteristics

 Median (range) number of deployments

–

2 (1–11)

–

2 (1–11)

2 (1–7)

–

 Total deployment duration (months)

–

23.5

(± 20.7)

–

20.1

(± 22.4)

24.7

(± 24.4)

–

Pulmonary function testing^

 FVC_PP

94.7

(± 12.2)

91.7

(± 12.6)

0.20

91.0

(± 13.3)

92.7

(± 11.9)

0.36

 FEV1_PP

93.8

(± 14.8)

90.8

(± 15.1)

0.29

90.4

(± 17.1)

91.2

(± 12.3)

0.55

 FEV1/FVC ratio (%)

76.0

(± 8.0)

78.8

(± 7.5)

0.05

79.4

(± 8.1)

78.1

(± 6.7)

0.11

 RV_PP

–

106.1

(± 20.9)

–

105.8

(± 20.4)

106.4

(± 21.9)

–

 TLC_PP

–

103.8

(± 12.4)

–

101.8

(± 11.2)

106.5

(± 13.5)

–

 RV/TLC ratio (%)

–

30.9

(± 5.5)

–

30.8

(± 5.6)

31.0

(± 5.5)

–

 DLCO_PP

–

115.3

(± 20.6)

–

116.5

(± 20.3)

113.6

(± 21.1)

–