TABLE 5.

Comparative characterization of staphylococcal superantigen production by randomly selected nasal and skin isolates carrying the sea, seb, sec, sed, or tsst-1 gene

Protein	Nasal isolates	Skin isolates	Nonatopic isolates	Total	P value
SEA	n = 8	n = 11	n = 6	n = 25	0.1526a
Avg. (SD)	8.4 (7.4)	5.7 (8.3)	1.2 (0.9)	5.5 (7.3)
Range	0.3–20.2	0.1–25.0	0.2–2.4	0.1–25.0
Median	7.8	0.7	1.0	2.0
95% CI	[2.2; 14.6]	[0.1; 11.3]	[0.2; 2.1]	[2.5; 8.5]
SEB	n = 0	n = 1	n = 4	n = 5	-
Avg. (SD)		8.1 (0.0)	3.9 (3.5)	4.8 (3.5)
Range		8.1–8.1	0.1–7.5	0.1–8.1
Median		8.1	4.0	6.1
95% CI		[0.0; 0.0]	[−1.6; 9.4]	[0.4; 9.1]
SEC	n = 12	n = 16	n = 4	n = 32	0.2165a
Avg. (SD)	13.9 (22.9)	6.0 (13.6)	0.7 (0.3)	8.3 (17.2)
Range	0.2–61.1	0.0–55.1	0.3–1.1	0.0–61.0
Median	2.9	1.5	0.7	1.5
95% CI	[−0.6; 28.4]	[−1.2; 13.3]	[0.1; 1.2]	[2.1; 14.5]
SED	n = 3	n = 7	n = 3	n = 13	0.125a
Avg. (SD)	2.3 (0.8)	1.2 (0.5)	1.1 (0.2)	1.4 (0.7)
Range	1.7–3.2	0.6–2.0	0.9–1.3	0.6–3.2
Median	2.0	1.1	1.0	1.2
95% CI	[0.3; 4.3]	[0.7; 1.7]	[0.6; 1.5]	[1.0; 1.8]
TSST-1	n = 4	n = 2	n = 1	n = 7	0.8170b
Avg. (SD)	3.0 (1.7)	3.4 (2.7)	0.3 (0.0)	2.7 (1.9)
Range	1.6–4.7	1.5–5.2	0.3 to 0.3	0.3–5.2
Median	2.9	3.4	0.3	1.6
95% CI	[0.3; 5.7]	[−20.5; 27.2]	[0.0; 0.0]	[0.9; 4.5]

^aKruskal-Wallis test; the values of protein concentration are in μg/mL.

^bMann-Whitney U test; the values of protein concentration are in μg/mL.