Table 6. AE predictive significance of serum cytokines determined by univariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis.

Parameters*	HR**	95% CI	P value
IL-1β	0.587	0.183–1.886	0.371
IL-ra	1.001	0.994–1.008	0.813
IL-2	0.975	0.535–1.779	0.935
IL-4	0.779	0.227–2.668	0.690
IL-5	1.021	0.906–1.151	0.731
IL-6	0.906	0.654–1.253	0.550
IL-7	1.001	0.790–1.267	0.995
IL-8	0.995	0.971–1.019	0.655
IL-9	0.998	0.955–1.022	0.473
IL-10	0.910	0.447–1.853	0.796
IL-12	0.970	0.691–1.361	0.858
IL-13	1.074	0.889–1.297	0.458
IL-15	1.000	0.978–1.022	0.978
IL-17	0.919	0.701–1.206	0.544
Eotaxin/CCL11	1.004	0.968–1.041	0.830
b-FGF	0.967	0.830–1.126	0.666
G-CSF	0.998	0.984–1.012	0.760
GM-CSF	0.956	0.453–2.018	0.905
IFNγ	0.936	0.751–1.168	0.560
IP-10/CXCL10	0.999	0.998–1.001	0.587
MCP-1/CCL2	0.957	0.894–1.025	0.208
MIP-1α/CCL3	0.981	0.939–1.025	0.383
PDGF-BB	1.001	1.000–1.002	0.054
MIP-1β/CCL4	0.999	0.997–1.0011	0.304
RANTES/CCL5	1.000	1.000–1.000	0.599
TNF-α	0.964	0.902–1.029	0.272
VEGF-A	1.005	0.977–1.035	0.716

*, cytokine levels were used as pg/mL; **, HR >1 means an increase in each continuous parameter indicating high risk of occurrence of acute exacerbation. AE, acute exacerbation; b-FGF, basic fibroblast growth factor; CCL, CC chemokine ligand; CI, confidence interval; CXCL, CXC chemokine ligand; G-CSF; granulocyte colony-stimulating factor; GM-CSF, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor; HR, hazard ratio; HRCT, high-resolution computed tomography; IFN, interferon; IIP, idiopathic interstitial pneumonia; IL, interleukin; IP-10, IFN-γ inducible protein; MCP, monocyte chemotactic protein; MIP, macrophage inflammatory protein; PDGF, platelet-derived growth factor; RANTES, regulated on activation, normal T-cell expressed and secreted; TNF, tumor necrosis factor; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor.