Table 3

Fecal microbial diversity at ages 1 and 4 months, and eczema1 at age 6 months, stratified by mode of delivery


Vaginal Delivery2
 Cesarean Section2




Means
Means





Age
 Eczema
 Controls
 p-value3
 Eczema
 Controls
 p-value3
DGGE bands4
 1 month
 3.60
 5.20
 0.05
 4.00
 4.57
 0.75

4 months
 4.20
 7.75
 0.26
 3.50
 5.67
 0.12
Shannon index5







1 month
 0.50
 0.83
 0.04
 0.56
 0.70
 0.16

4 months
 0.63
 0.94
 0.18
 0.56
 0.90
 0.04

1Defined as parental report of physician-diagnosed eczema at or before 6 months of age

2There was no difference in microbial diversity when comparing delivery modes regardless of eczema status (p > 0.90)

3Mann-Whitney U-test p-value

4Number of denaturating gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) bands in each sample

5Shannon diversity index (H') calculated using the relative intensity of all bands within each sample

Forno et al. Clinical and Molecular Allergy 2008 6:11   doi:10.1186/1476-7961-6-11