Korean J Fam Pract. 2018; 8(1): 52-58  https://doi.org/10.21215/kjfp.2018.8.1.52
Relationship between White Blood Cell Count and Pulmonary Function Test Results in Korean Adults: The 2007-2009 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
Jun-Hyuk Lee1, Hyo-Sun You1, Yu-Jin Kwon1,2, Ji-Won Lee1,2,*
1Department of Family Medicine, Gangnam Severance Hospital; 2Department of Family Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Ji-Won Lee
Tel: +82-2-2019-3481, Fax: +82-2-3462-8209
E-mail: INDI5645@yuhs.ac
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2666-4249
Received: March 10, 2017; Revised: July 30, 2017; Accepted: August 3, 2017; Published online: February 20, 2018.
© The Korean Academy of Family Medicine. All rights reserved.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background: Systemic inflammation is associated with impaired pulmonary function. In this study, we investigated the relationship between white blood cell (WBC) count and pulmonary function test (PFT) result.
Methods: We analyzed data from the 2007–2009 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Finally, 8,464 patients with no history of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with WBC counts ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 cells/μL, and ability to interpret lung function test results were finally selected. The WBC counts were divided into four groups according to quartiles. The PFT results were divided into three groups as follows: normal, obstructive, and restrictive patterns. A weighted multinomial logistic regression analysis was performed to calculate the odds ratio for abnormal PFT patterns.
Results: The odds ratios were Q2 vs. Q1 1.196 (0.877–1.630), Q3 vs. Q1 1.338 (0.968–1.848), and Q4 vs. Q1 1.670 (1.224–2.280) for the obstructive pattern, and Q2 vs. Q1 0.987 (0.737–1.312), Q3 vs. Q1 1.066 (0.803–1.413), and Q4 vs. Q1 1.329 (1.001–1.766) for the restrictive pattern after being adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, waist circumference, smoking status, high-risk drinking, regular exercise, mean blood pressure, serum fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglyceride, and diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia medication.
Conclusion: The highest WBC quartile was associated with an increased odds ratio for obstructive and restrictive patterns in subjects without asthma and COPD. The odds ratio of the obstructive pattern was higher than that of the restrictive pattern.
Keywords: Leukocytes; Pulmonary Function Test; Inflammation
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