Plasma Hierarchical clustering and PCA
In contrast to BAL, plasma clusters were less well defined. When
plotting IL-6 as a marker of immune inflammatory activation and Ct
values, the BAL clusters were better delineated (Fig.3). A full
description of the plasma clusters is provided in the supplemental
material.
When comparing plasma and BAL cytokine concentrations, most cytokines
were higher in the lung compartment except for IL-6 and IL-12. The ratio
between plasma and BAL concetrations was not consistent across
cytokines. The Dunn index was higher for the BAL clusters (1.2) compared
to the plasma clusters (0.76).