Table 4.

Within- and between-group comparisons of the changes from baseline to endpoint measures for blood pressure and lipid profile in the saffron and placebo groups of asthmatic patients

Variables	Saffron (N = 38)		Placebo(N = 38)		P-value*
	Value	P-value¥	Value	P-value¥
Systolic pressure (mm Hg)
Baseline	11.00 (11.00–12.00)		11.00 (11.00–12.00)
8 weeks (endpoint)	11 (10.75–12.00)		11.75 (11.00–12.00)
Changes	−0.11 ± 0.39	0.08	0.02 ± 0.11	0.70	0.03
Diastolic pressure (mm Hg)
Baseline	8.00 (7.00–8.00)		8.00 (7.00–8.00)
8 weeks (endpoint)	7.25 (7.00–8.00)		8.00 (7.50–8.00)
Changes	−0.02 ± 0.44	0.15	0.15 ± 0.30	0.005	0.04
Total cholesterol
Baseline	196.82 ± 42.11		192.74 ± 28.93
8 weeks (endpoint)	162.52 ± 36.95		173.47 ± 39.87		0.08
Changes	−34.28 ± 32.23	< 0.001	−19.26 ± 42.04	0.008
Triglyceride
Baseline	159.83 ± 41.20		149.30 ± 48.27
8 weeks (endpoint)	139.48 ± 34.39		153.18 ± 44.99		0.002
Changes	−20.34 ± 30.28	< 0.001	3.88 ± 34.94	0.49
LDL-C
Baseline	118.54 ± 36.03		120.74 ± 27.35
8 weeks (endpoint)	80.09 ± 35.85		121.82 ± 35.16		< 0.001
Changes	−38.44 ± 41.82	< 0.001	1.08 ± 25.76	0.79
HDL-C
Baseline	45.32 ± 13.46		45.57 ± 13.01
8 weeks (endpoint)	48.34 ± 15.49		47.35 ± 10.62		0.68
Changes	3.02 ± 15.53	0.23	1.78 ± 10.51	0.30

LDL-C low density lipoprotein, HDL-C high density lipoprotein *p-value for comparing the changes of variables between the groups. Mann whitney test was used for systolic and diastolic blood pressure and independent sample T test for lipid profile. ¥p-value for comparing baseline, with endpoint values within each group. Paired samples t-test was used. Values are expressed as mean ± SD for parametric data and median (25th, 75th percentiles) for non-parametric data