Reducing Agents Decrease the Oxidative Burst and Improve Clinical Outcomes in COPD Patients: A Randomised Controlled Trial on the Effects of Sulphurous Thermal Water Inhalation

Table 3

Inflammatory cell counts in the sputum of COPD patients.

		Sulphurous water inhalation			Isotonic saline inhalation
		Baseline	End of treatment	One month followup
Macrophages (%)	25 ± 11	26 ± 16	19.3 ± 13	19.5 ± 8.6	17.9 ± 12.8	20.1 ± 9.8
Neutrophils (%)	72.8 ± 10.0	74 ± 16	78.9 ± 12	79.9 ± 4.6	82.1 ± 14.3	78.8 ± 11.8
Eosinophils (%)	1.2 ± 0.6	0	1.1 ± 0.4	0.6 ± 0.3	0	0.5 ± 0.2
Lymphocytes (%)	0.3 ± 0.1	0	0.7 ± 0.3	0	0	0.6 ± 0.3