Table 1.

Characteristics of patients included in the study

	Control group (sedentary-healthy)	E-COPD (hospitalized pts)
Number	31	121
Male/Female	26/5	109/12
Age (years)	54 ± 9	60 ± 12
Smoking state (pack-year)	Nonsmokers	30 ± 7
FeV1 (L/s)	2.9 ± 0.31	1.27 ± 0.58
FeV1 (% pred)	96.76 ± 10.44	42.46 ± 19.45
Systemic corticotherapy	Any	Yes*

Note:

^*32 mg methylprednisolone/day for 10 days with decrease in maximum 2 weeks.

Abbreviation: FEV₁, forced expiratory volume in one second.