**4.1 Patient demographics**

Group A included 8 males and 1 female (mean age, 49.1 ± 15.1 years), Group B included 11 males and 6 females (mean age, 47.8 ± 15.6 years), Group C included 23 males and 7 females (mean age, 41.9 ± 11.3 years), and Group D included 10 males and 20 females (mean age, 50 ± 14.9 years). There was no significantly difference across age (unpaired *t*-test, *p* > 0.05). The gender distribution was significantly different with obvious male preponderance in Groups A, B, and C (Kruskal-Wallis test, *p* < 0.05; **Table 1**). The information including bacteriology, eosinophilic rhinosinusitis, asthma, or ImmunoCAP Specific IgE blood test were shown in **Table 1**. The bacteriological data indicated *Staphylococcus aureus* was the major bacterial species found. The main infiltrative inflammatory cells according to pathologic slides were lymphoplasma cells and, occasionally, neutrophil infiltration. Eosinophilic rhinosinusitis was defined as average eosinophil count >10/high power field in ten randomly selected fields (X 400) under H&E staining from our previous publication [13]. Aspirin intolerance and bronchial asthma were very scarce (only one case in Groups A and C, respectively).
