Figure legends:
Figure 1. sIgE to fish PVs. A) The concentration of PV-sIgE in
patients’ sera (n=263). Dashed line-threshold for positive signal; full
line-median; dotted line-quartiles. Statistical analysis demonstrating
significant differences between the PVs is provided in Table SIII. B)
Percentage of patients positive to each PV. C) Spearman correlation of
PV-sIgE levels (numbers show the correlation coefficient). The order of
the PVs on the x-axis is according to the degree of IgE levels’
correlation to those for ray PV. D) Median levels of IgE to each PV in
each country.
Figure 2. Diversity of PV-sIgE levels. Shannon’s diversity
index is shown for the patient groups with different symptom scores (A),
gender (B), sex (C) and country of origin (D). Groups for diversity
calculations were based on four categories of sIgE levels (kUA/L): 1)
<0.3 2) 0.3-3.5 3) 3.5-13 4)>13. Statistical
tests included the Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn’s multiple comparison
test for comparison between more than two groups (A, B and D), and the
Mann Whitney test for two groups (C). *P<0.05;
**P<0.01.
Figure 3. Distribution of the patients negative to one or more
PVs. A) Percentage of the patients with IgE<0.3 kUA/L for each
PV in each investigated country. B) The probability of the IgE test to
be negative for PV on x-axis, if negative for PV on y-axis. The order of
the PVs is according to the strongest correlation to results obtained
for ray PV.
Figure 4. The complementary use of fish extracts in molecular
diagnosis. A) Concentration of IgE specific to PVs, raw extracts (RE)
and heated extracts (HE) from seven fish species in sera of
fish-allergic patients (n=263). Full line indicates median. Dashed line
indicates threshold for positive signal. Each dot presents a signal for
an individual patient. B) Spearman correlation coefficient demonstrating
correlations between IgE values obtained for PVs and extracts from each
fish PV for all 263 patients. Error bars indicate 95% confidence
interval for the calculated correlation coefficient. C) Country-specific
percentage of patients with higher IgE to raw and/or heated extracts
than to PVs from one or more species. D) Comparison of IgE values to PVs
and extracts for each patient with higher IgE to raw and/or heated
extract than to PV from the same species. Dashed line is a threshold for
positive signal.
Figure 5. Patients negative to in vitro IgE tests with
parvalbumins, raw and heated extracts from specific fish. A) Percentage
of patients (n=263) negative in ALEX2 assay to
PV&RE&HE from each tested fish. B) Probability (0.0-1.0) that a
patient is negative for PV&RE&HE tests for fish on x-axis if negative
for PV&RE&HE for fish on y-axis. Fish species are in alphabetical
order.