Table 1. Patients’ characteristics.

	Steroid-naïve patientswith asthma	Mild to moderatepersistent asthmaticson ICS*	Severe persistentasthmatics on ICS	p-value†
Patients, number	31	6	22
Gender, male/female	16/15	3/3	11/11	0.99†
Age, years	53±17	57±23	57±16	0.48†
Smoking history, ex/never	7/24	1/5	10/12	0.15†
Disease duration, years	4±6	10±12	17±19	0.0008¶
Atopic status‡, yes/no	22/9	4/2	18/4	0.60†
Doses of ICS§, µg daily	–	283±134	1214±696	0.0001#
FEV1, % predicted	100±26	101±27	83±25	0.01†
Exhaled nitric oxide levels, ppb	35±31	42±20	37±32	0.50†
Blood eosinophils, %	4±4	4±6	4±4	0.94#
Sputum eosinophils, %	11±22	5±5	7±10	0.87#
Serum IgE, IU/ml	83 (5–1106)	86 (9–220)	185 (5–1800)	0.19¶

Values are given as means ± SD or medians (range).

^*included four patients with mild and two with moderate persistent asthma.

^†with the χ² test or analysis of variance.

^‡Patients were considered atopic when they were positive for one or more serum allergen-specific IgE antibodies against house dust, Japanese cedar pollen, mixed gramineae pollen, mixed weed pollen, mixed mold, cat dander, dog dander, and Trichophyton rubrum.

^§Equivalent to fluticasone propionate.

^¶by Kruskal Wallis test,

^#by unpaired t-test or analysis of variance after data were log-transformed.

Abbreviations: ICS, inhaled corticosteroid; FEV₁; forced expiratory volume in one second.