Table 1.
Demographic, functional, clinical and laboratory characteristics for all patients and for those with telomere length ratio measurement
| Personal & health characteristics |
All patients (n = 118) |
Patients with telomere length ratio (n = 36) | Patients without telomere length ratio (n = 82) | p-valuea |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gender (male; n, %) | 88 (74.6) | 27 (75.0) | 61 (74.4) | 0.9441 |
| Age (years; mean, SD) | 72 (8.3) | 72 (8.0) | 72 (8.4) | 0.8862 |
| Smoking status (n, %) | ||||
| No smoker | 31 (26.3) | 11 (30.6) | 20 (24.4) | 0.7441 |
| Ex smoker | 78 (66.1) | 22 (61.1) | 56 (68.3) | |
| Current smoker | 9 (7.6) | 3 (8.3) | 6 (7.3) | |
| FVC (most recent, %; mean, SD) | 71.2 (20.2) | 79.5 (18.8) | 67.3 (19.8) | 0.0042 |
| DLCO (most recent, %; mean, SD) | 41.4 (19.1) | 46.0 (17.2) | 39.7 (20.1) | 0.1332 |
| GAP stage (n, %) | ||||
| I | 33 (28.0) | 13 (38.2) | 20 (26.7) | |
| II | 51 (43.2) | 15 (44.1) | 36 (48.0) | 0.4251 |
| III | 25 (21.2) | 6 (17.7) | 19 (25.3) | |
| Number of exacerbations (mean, SD) | 0.7 (1.0) | 0.6 (0.8) | 0.8 (1.0) | 0.2942 |
| Exacerbation (yes; n, %) | 55 (46.6) | 14 (38.9) | 41 (50.0) | 0.2171 |
| Telomere length ratio (mean, SD) | 0.79 (0.35) | 0.79 (0.35) | - | - |
| Antifibrotic therapy (yes; n, %) | 44 (37.3) | 12 (33.3) | 32 (39.0) | 0.6711 |
Abbreviations: FVC Forced Vital Capacity, DLCO Diffusing Capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide, SD Standard Deviation
p-valuea: assessing differences between patients with/without telomere length ratio measurement
1chi-square test
2independent samples t-test