Table 2.

Mean relative abundance of bacterial phyla seen in clinical subgroups (%)

Phyla	Total IBS	IBS-P	IBS-N	Total HC	HC-P	HC-N
	(n = 39)	(n = 26)	(n = 13)	(n = 55)	(n = 42)	(n = 13)
Actinobacteria	3.562	2.906	5.145	2.450	0.668	4.600
Bacteroidetes	34.623a	39.171	25.515	47.700	48.467	45.222
Cyanobacteria/chloroplast	0.032	0.045	0.006	0.023	0.025	0.015
Elusimicrobia	0.016	0.025	0	0.001	0.0005	0.003
Firmicutes	49.812	44.350	60.735	41.431	41.970	39.686
Fusobacteria	0.279	0.031	0.775	0.084	0.110	0
Lentisphaerae	0.021	0.025	0.011	0.018	0.020	0.012
Other	3.882	4.893	1.858	3.297	3.481	2.700
Proteobacteria	7.031	8.032	5.029	5.417	4.758	7.545
Spirochaetes	0	0	0	0.001	0.002	0
Synergistetes	0.007	0.004	0.012	0.003	0.003	0.005
TM7	0	0	0	0.0004	0.0005	0
Tenericutes	0	0	0	0.004	0.005	0
Verrucomicrobia	0.316	0.217	0.515	0.308	0.347	0.183
Unclassified	0.004a	0.006	0	0	0	0

^aSignificant difference in total IBS cf total HC using Mann-Whitney test

IBS-P patients with irritable bowel syndrome positive for Blastocystis, IBS-N patients with irritable bowel syndrome negative for Blastocystis, HC-P healthy controls positive for Blastocystis, HC-N healthy controls negative for Blastocystis, cf compare