All measurements in BALF will be corrected for the serum-to-BALF urea ratio, as previously described [64] . sPLA2 genetics sPLA2-IIA [HGNC:9031], -V [HGNC:9038] and -X [HGNC:9029] genes polymorphisms will be studied in the patients' leukocytes. We found 15 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) for these genes. These polymorphisms were searched in the dbSNP (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/SNP/), JSNP (http://snp.ims.u-tokyo.ac.jp), GenBank at the NCBI (http://www.genbank.com) and Applied Biosystems genotyping databases (http://www.appliedbiosystems.com), as well as in a previous study linking them to coronary artery disease [47] . Analysis of genetic polymorphisms SNP genotyping will be performed by TaqMan allelic discrimination assay [65] . Polymerase chain reaction will be performed with specific primers at concentrations of 900 nM. Fluorescence data files from each plate were analyzed by a specific software. In order to verify the correct genotype assignment, we will randomly analyse some of the above screened samples by means of genetic sequencing (BigDye terminator technique).