Title Page
Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction 8
Chapter 2. Methods 9
1. Participants 9
2. Study protocol 10
3. Methacholine BPT 11
4. Exercise BPT 11
5. FeNO (Fractional exhaled nitric oxide) 12
6. Measurement of serum biomarkers 12
7. Statistical analyses 12
Chapter 3. Results 14
1. Characteristics of the study participants 14
2. Pulmonary function, AHR to methacholine and exercise 15
3. Associations between periostin and YKL-40 levels and lung function, atopy, AHR to exercise and AHR to methacholine 16
Chapter 4. Discussion 18
References 21
Korean abstract 24
English abstract 26
Table 1. Baseline characteristics of studied participants 14
Table 2. Differences in individual characteristics and pulmonary functions 15
Table 3. Spearman's correlation coefficients among study participants. 17
Figure 1. Schematic representation of study design. 11
Figure 2. Serum periostin and YKL-40 levels in study participants 16