Adjusted comparisons of health status, exercise tolerance and systemic inflammatory biomarkers between the study groups.

Values are mean ± SEM. Comparisons adjusted by gender, age, pack-year and FEV1 (% pred). Abbreviations: mMRC = modified Medical Research Council dyspnea scale; SGRQ = St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire; EQ-5D = EuroQol 5 Dimensions questionnaire; VAS = Visual analogue scale; LCADL = London Chest Activities of Daily Living; CRP = C-reactive protein; TNF = tumor necrosis factor; IL = interleukin; NOx = nitrites/nitrates.
Post-hoc comparisons between groups by Bonferroni test: †p<0.001 vs. normal weight group; ‡p<0.05 vs. normal weight group; ¶p<0.01 vs. overweight group; §p<0.05 vs. overweight group.