ROC curve analysis showed that the percent of CD14++CD16+PAR-2+ in peripheral blood was able to discriminate between patients with severe and those with mild/moderate asthma with high sensitivity and specificity (AUC = 0.774, P = 0.008, 95% CI, sensitivity of 83.3% and specificity of 79.2%) (Fig 2). Here, CD14 is linked to asthma.