Markers for diagnosis of pulmonary inflammation and methods related thereto

A method to assess response to antibiotic treatment of acute pulmonary exacerbation in a human subject having cystic fibrosis comprising:

• a) detecting the level of mRNA expression of CD64, IL32, PLXND1, HCA112, TLR2, and CD163 genes in a blood sample taken from the subject before an antibiotic treatment is administered to the subject;
• b) detecting the level of mRNA expression of CD64, IL32, PLXND1, HCA112, TLR2, and CD163 genes in a blood sample taken from the subject after an antibiotic treatment has been administered to the subject;
• c) comparing the level of the mRNA expression of the genes from step (a) in the sample taken from the subject before administering the treatment to the mRNA level of the expression of the genes from step (b) in the sample taken from the subject after administering the treatment;
• and
• d) predicting that the subject will respond to the antibiotic treatment if there is a difference in the mRNA expression levels of CD64, PLXND1, HCA112, TLR2, CD163 and IL32 genes from step (a) compared to the mRNA expression levels of the same genes from step (b).