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.