Fig 2: Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of milk fat globule epidermal growth factor 8 (MFG-E8) in diagnosing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The area under the ROC curve was 0.874 (95% confidence interval: 0.798-0.95; P<0.01). The MFG-E8 cut-off value in predicting COPD was 5.27 ng/mL (sensitivity 96.9%, specificity 71.4%).

Fig 3: A, Plasma milk fat globule epidermal growth factor 8 (MFG-E8) levels in healthy controls and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). B, Plasma MFG-E8 levels in COPD patients differing in the severity of their disease. Global Initiative For Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) criteria: GOLD I (mild); GOLD II (moderate); GOLD III (severe); GOLD IV (very severe). C, Plasma MFG-E8 levels among never, current, and ex-smokers. A: *P<0.05 vscontrol; B: *P<0.05 vs GOLD IV; C: #P<0.05 vs never smoker (Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare two groups and Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to compare more than two groups).