Table 2.
The association between the gut microbiota alpha diversity indices and brain MRI lesion volumes in the pediatric‐onset MS cohort.
| Alpha diversity | Unadjusted | Adjusted | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| β (95% CI) | p‐value | β (95% CI) | p‐value | |
| T2 lesion volume (cube‐root‐transformed) | ||||
| Shannon index (evenness and richness) | −0.12 (−0.36, 0.12) | 0.34 | −0.12 (−0.34, 0.11) | 0.33 |
| Margalef's index (richness) | 0.24 (0.01, 0.46) | 0.047 | 0.18 (−0.06, 0.42) | 0.14 |
| Chao 1 index (richness) | 0.25 (0.03, 0.48) | 0.036 | 0.21 (−0.02, 0.44) | 0.086 |
| T1 lesion volume (cube‐root‐transformed) | ||||
| Shannon index (evenness and richness) | −0.20 (−0.62, 0.22) | 0.35 | −0.36 (−0.78, 0.06) | 0.11 |
| Margalef's index (richness) | 0.12 (−0.07, 0.31) | 0.22 | 0.07 (−0.13, 0.26) | 0.53 |
| Chao 1 index (richness) | 0.11 (−0.08, 0.31) | 0.27 | 0.07 (−0.13, 0.27) | 0.48 |
Interpretation: The β values and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were assessed using linear regression. The β value represents the mean change in lesion volume (cube root transformed) associated per 1 standard deviation (SD) increase in the alpha diversity index. The SDs are as follows: 0.1 (Shannon), 6.4 (Margalef's), and 74.4 (Chao 1) (see Tables 1 and S1). A positive β value indicates that a higher index value was associated with a higher brain T2 or T1 lesion volume.