Diversity of parvalbumin-specific IgE levels varies in demographic groups but not as a function of symptom severity, age or gender
To investigate whether the diversity of IgE responses to different PVs depends on clinical or demographic characteristics, Shannon’s diversity index was calculated for each patient based on four categories of the IgE levels to 10 parvalbumins (<0.3 kUA/L, 0.3-3.5 kUA/L, 3.5-13 kUA/L, >13 kUA/L). The diversity of the PV-sIgE levels in serum did not depend on symptom score (Figure 2A ), age group (Figure 2B ) or sex (Figure 2C ). A significantly higher diversity of IgE levels to different PVs was observed for the Chinese cohort than for the Austrian, Spanish or Norwegian cohorts (Figure 2D ).