Table 11. Predictive role of serum cytokines/mMRC^† for prognosis and AE occurrence was examined by Cox proportional hazard regression analysis.

Parameters*	HR**	95% CI	P value
Prognosis
Eotaxin (CCL11)/mMRC	0.918	0.881–0.957	<0.001
PDGF/mMRC	1.002	1.001–1.004	0.002
Adjusted by %FVC with stepwise procedure
Eotaxin (CCL11)/mMRC	0.918	0.881–0.957	0.002
PDGF/mMRC	1.002	1.001–1.004	0.016
%FVC	0.955	0.930–0.981	0.001
AE occurrence
IL-9/mMRC	0.880	0.813–0.953	0.002
PDGF/mMRC	1.004	1.001–1.007	0.009
Adjusted by %FVC with stepwise procedure
IL-9/mMRC	0.904	0.835–0.980	0.014
PDGF/mMRC	1.003	1.001–1.006	0.013
%FVC	0.961	0.933–0.991	0.012

*, cytokine levels were used as pg/mL; **, HR >1 means an increase in each continuous parameter indicating high risk of mortality or occurrence of acute exacerbation; ^†, the mMRC scores were used in the calculation as the denominator, mMRC scores from 0 to 4 were converted to from 1 to 5. AE, acute exacerbation; CCL, CC chemokine ligand; CI, confidence interval; HR, hazard ratio; IL, interleukin; mMRC, modified Medical Research Council score for shortness of breathe; PDGF, platelet-derived growth factor.