FIGURE 1.

Elevated blood eosinophils in severe therapy-resistant asthma (STRA) and difficult asthma (DA) compared to chronic inflammation (CI), but sputum eosinophils only increased in STRA. a) Frequency of eosinophils in i) blood and ii) induced sputum from children with STRA, DA and with recurrent lower respiratory tract infections (CI) assessed by morphology; frequency of b) neutrophils, c) monocytes and macrophages and d) lymphocytes in i) blood and ii) induced sputum. Kruskall–Wallis test with a Dunn's post-test, followed by Mann–Whitney test between indicated pairs of groups. **: p<0.01, ***: p<0.001 and ****: p<0.0001. STRA n ≥16, DA n ≥6 and CI n ≥7.