Data are presented as n or mean±sd. For additional information, see supplementary table 1. H: healthy controls; RA: rheumatoid arthritis; LS: Löfgren's syndrome; SA: severe asthma; BALF: bronchoalveolar lavage fluid; FVC: forced vital capacity; FEV₁: forced expiratory volume in 1 s; NA: not available. ^#: information obtained from published data [13]. ^¶: stage I indicates granuloma formation in the hilar lymph nodes; stage II also has, in addition to the hilar lymphadenopathy, granuloma formation in the lung shown as diffuse infiltrates on the radiograph; stage III has parenchymal infiltrates on the radiograph but absence of hilar adenopathy; stage IV indicates irreversible pulmonary scarring. ⁺: LS group is missing one value. ^§: LS group is missing one value; non-LS group is missing three values. ^ƒ: LS group contains two different BALF samples from the same patient.