Fig. 4.

Impact of age and gender on outcomes of SCAP patients and its potential mechanisms. (a) The column chart showing differential 30-day morality of SCAP patients at different ages. The vertical line shows the cut-off age for patients to be at higher risk of 30-day death. The males were indicated in blue. The females were marked in red. (b) The box plot showing the 30-day death rate of four groups including the females aged ≤55 (red), the females >55 (light green), the males aged ≤55 (blue), the males >55 (purple). The statistical analysis was conducted by Wilcoxon rank sum test. (c) The column chart shows DEGs in BALF and blood in the elder (patients aged >55) group compared to the young (patients aged ≤55) group. (d) The GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of the outcomes-related DEGs between the elder male patients and the young male patients. (e) The volcano plot showing outcomes-related DEGs in BALF, blood and sputum between the males and females aged over 55. The outcomes-related DEGs: the rest DEGs between the males and females aged over 55 after the removal of the overlapped DEGs (present not only in DEGs between the male and female SCAP patients aged >55 years but also in DEGs between the male and female SCAP patients aged ≤55 years) except those associated with age. (f) The GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of the outcomes-related DEGs between the males and females aged over 55.