Table 2.

Comparison of the immune and endocrine parameters between PTSD patients and healthy volunteers*

	Findings in participants		Statistics
Variable†	PTSD patients (n = 38)	healthy volunteers (n = 24)	t	P	d‡
Lymphocytes (count/μL)	2294.7 (2077.8-2511.5)	1817.2 (1544.3-2090.1)	2.763	0.007	0.006
T cells (%)	70.7 (67.5-73.8)	67.9 (63.6-71.9)	0.812	0.419	0.028
Helper T cells (%)	44.8 (42.0-47.5)	42.2 (38.7-45.6)	1.023	0.310	0.017
Cytotoxic T cells (%)	22.8 (20.3-25.6)	20.8 (17.9-24.1)	0.768	0.444	0.039
B cells (%)	11.2 (9.8-12.8)	11.5 (9.7-13.5)	-0.237	0.813	0.050
Natural killer cells (%)	16.2 (13.7-18.8)	17.93 (14.7-21.5)	-0.276	0.783	0.044
Natural killer cell cytotoxicity (mean):§	45.5 (39.2-51.7)	47.4 (39.4-55.4)	-0.778	0.439	0.033
25:1	31.6 (25.5-37.8)	35.0 (27.5-42.5)	-0.711	0.480
50:1	46.5 (40.1-52.4)	49.5 (41.7-51.4)	-0.629	0.532
100:1	56.5 (50.8-62.2)	59.6 (52.2-67.1)	-0.684	0.497
Lymphocyte glucocorticoid receptor (m.f.i.)	42.5 (38.5-46.6)	39.21 (34.5-44.3)	0.856	0.394	0.022
Cortisol (μg/100 mL)	13.7 (11.1-16.5)	12.0(9.1-15.4)	1.140	0.258	0.011

*Abbreviations: PTSD – posttraumatic stress disorder; m.f.i. – mean fluorescence intensity.

†Values are means or backtransformed means with 95% confidence intervals in the parentheses. To meet t test assumptions variables were transformed as follows: square for T cells (CD3⁺), logarithm for cytotoxic T cells (CD3⁺CD8⁺), square root for B cells (CD20⁺), natural killer cells (CD56⁺CD16⁺), glucocorticoid receptor, and cortisol.

‡Threshold value calculated using the false discovery rate method. If the P value exceeds corresponding d, performed test is not statistically significant at 0.05 level.

§Percentage of lysis represented as the mean of three effector:target cell ratios (25:1, 50:1, 100:1), separate effector:target cell ratios were not included in the calculation of d values.