Table 3.

Characteristics of BAL cells from the study population

Group	Patients with asthma	Control subjects
Recovery (ml)	122 (90–147)	123.5 (95–140)
Total cells number (×106)	3.9 (0.7–32.8)	5.0 (1.4–27.4)
Total cell number per volume of BAL recovered (×104/ml)	3.0 (0.7–25.0)	4.1 (1.0–23.2)
Macrophages (%)	89.0 (41.5–97.8)	91.7 (82.7–98.7)
Neutrophils (%)	0.5 (0–3.9)	0.3 (0–1.7)
Eosinophils (%)	0.3 (0–10.0)†	0 (0–0.7)
Lymphocytes (%)	10.2 (1.8–57.3)	7.9 (1.3–16.4)

Data are expressed as median (range).

†P < .01 compared with the control group.