Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): neutrophils, macrophages and lymphocytes in patients with anterior tuberculosis compared to tobacco related COPD.

We enrolled 92 participants, 46 (50%) were COPD subjects comprising 22 (47.83%) smokers and 24 (52.17%) with anterior tuberculosis while 46 (50%) healthy persons constituted the control group. The levels of neutrophils, lymphocytes and monocytes were statistically higher in COPD patients compared to the control group with p-values of 0.0001 respectively. Neutrophils levels were higher in COPD patients with history of tobacco than in COPD patients with anterior tuberculosis with a mean rate of 4.72 × 106/ml and 2.48 × 106/ml respectively (p = 0.04). The monocytes and lymphocytes levels were not statistically different between the two sub-groups of COPD patients with p-value of 0.052 and 0.91 respectively. Neutrophils are the only inflammatory cells that were significantly higher in COPD patients with history of smoking as compared to COPD patients with anterior tuberculosis.