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. 2021 Apr 7;76(11):1079–1088. doi: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216037

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Reduced alveolar attachments around small airways of patients with COPD. (A) Representative images of intact alveolar attachments in small airway from lifelong NS subject and their loss in small airway from a patient in GOLD stage IV COPD. PAS staining. Scale bars=100 µm. Inserts show detailed organisation of alveolar attachments (red stars). (B) Box and whisker plots showing progressive loss of alveolar attachments in COPD small airways compared with NS and FS airways. Boxes represent the IQR, whiskers extend to the most extreme data point which is no more than 1.5 times the IQR from the box, and circles beyond the whiskers are extreme values, the line within the box represents the median. Groups were compared pairwise using Student’s t-test. Estimated p values were Bonferroni-adjusted. The threshold for significance was 0.05. *Significantly different compared with NS controls, **significantly different compared with all other groups. FS, former smoker; GOLD, Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease; NS, non-smoker; PAS, periodic acid-Schiff.