Our study similarly suggests that patients with a baseline history of chronic bronchitis (defined as chronic cough and sputum production for at least 3 months in the previous 2 years) had higher sputum IL-8 values compared to those COPD patients who did not report chronic cough and sputum and this should be borne in mind when analyzing data from COPD subjects. The gene discussed is CXCL8; the disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.