Fig 1.
Flow chart of how many study participants were included/excluded in the study.
* 8 were excluded in the FMS-group: 1 Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, 1 unclear autoimmune disease, 1 stroke in anamnesis, 1 acute severe pneumonia, 2 non-compliant, 2 lost contact. ** 1 was excluded in the healthy control (HC) group: autoimmune disease.
Table 1.
Demographic data (age, sex, BMI, smoking status) and dietary, medication and psychometric profiles of patients with FMS vs healthy controls.
Table 2.
Alpha-diversity statistics for the microbiome in FMS patients vs. healthy controls.
Fig 2.
Taxonomic composition of bacterial phyla in FMS patients.
In FMS, mostly dominant were Bacteroidetes (44%), followed by Firmicutes (37%) and Proteobacteria (13%). All phyla were tested for differences with DeSeq2 (GMPR normalization) which did not reveal any significant results. Abbreviations: gmpr–geometric mean of pairwise ratios.
Fig 3.
Taxonomic composition of bacterial phyla in healthy controls.
For healthy controls, the predominant phyla were Bacteroidetes (44%), Firmicutes (41%) and Proteobacteria (8%). All phyla were tested for differences with DeSeq2 (GMPR normalization) which did not reveal any significant results. Abbreviations: gmpr–geometric mean of pairwise ratios.
Table 3.
Statistical analysis of microbial beta-diversity in FMS patients vs healthy controls.
Fig 4.
Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) of the microbiota.
CCA analysis of microbiome in FMS patients and healthy controls (HC) failed to reveal a distinct “cluster” to each group.
Fig 5.
Z-adjusted values of the variables measured in quantitative sensory testing in FMS patients relative to healthy controls.
* p<0.05, **p<0.001; we used ANOVA for statistical testing. CDT = cold detection threshold, WDT = warm detection threshold, CPT = cold pain threshold, HPT = heat pain threshold, TSL = temperature sensory limen, MDT = mechanical detection threshold, MPT = mechanical pain threshold, WUR = wind up ratio, PPT = pressure pain threshold, VDT = vibration detection threshold.
Fig 6.
Z-adjusted values of paradoxical heat sensations measured in quantitative sensory testing in FMS patients relative to healthy controls.
We used ANOVA for statistical testing. PHS = paradoxical heat sensations.
Fig 7.
Z-adjusted values of dynamic mechanic allodynia measured in quantitative sensory testing in FMS patients relative to healthy controls.
**p<0.001; we used ANOVA for statistical testing. DMA = dynamic mechanical allodynia.
Table 4.
Results of quantitative sensory testing of FMS patients vs healthy controls (HC, raw data).