Figure 2.

Comparison of the Ig levels in patients with a severe and non-severe clinical presentation using the semiquantitative tests Abbott, Euroimmun and Snibe. Each dot represents one sample and the solid thick lines correspond to the group’s median. Solid thin lines represent each test’s cut-off value. In the case of Euroimmun test, the shadowed grey banner refers to borderline values according to the manufacturer (between 0.8 and 1.1). Since the y-axis has a log scale that does not allow the representation of zero, in those situations (Snibe IgG and IgM) arbitrary values were attributed, and a dashed grey line was represented in this value. For values above the detection limit (Euroimmun IgA), a random value of 20 was attributed and represented as a dashed grey line. Groups median were compared using a Mann–Whitney U-tests; significant differences were represented as: * for P < 0.05; ** for P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001.