Table 2.

A comparison of inflammatory markers in induced and spontaneous sputum sampled from the COPD patients at the time; either during a COPD exacerbation or during the stable state

	During a COPD exacerbation n = 28			During the stable state n = 30
	Induced sputum sample	Spontaneous sputum sample	p*	Induced sputum sample	Spontaneous sputum sample	p*
IL-6(pg/ml) median, IQR	10.0(4.9-26.6)	10.4(2.8-23.3)	0.29	20.5(6.11-43.2)	13.9(2.2-55.2)	0.46
IL-8(pg/ml) median, IQR	339.7(193.6-663.9)	344.9(173.9-812.2)	0.77	514.2(225.6-1257.2)	3709.9(171.7-976.7)	0.18
IP-10(pg/ml)	735.0(205.4-2099.6)	372.1(218.7-1416.2)	0.15	529.0(215.4-2554.8)	362.3(142.0-1393.1)	0.07
TNF-α (pg/ml) median, IQR	3.0(0.2-11.8)	6.3(2.0-34.0)	0.002	0.9(0-2.4)	1.3(0.2-4.3)	0.06
IL-18 (pg/ml) median, IQR	9.2(4.9-12.9)	10.6(3.6-27.3)	0.52	6.5(2.4-25.6)	9.6(0.8-18.2)	0.64
MIG (pg/ml) median, IQR	539.2(100.1-1496.0)	384.6(221.2-1997.0)	0.41	534.4(56.9-1450.1)	567.4(178.0-2031.7)	0.82

^*Wilcoxon sign rank test.