Statistical analysis
Categorical variables are expressed as counts (percentages). Continuous variables are presented as mean±SD if normally distributed, and as quartiles if non-normally distributed. Comparisons between groups were made using unpaired 2-tailed t -test or Mann-Whitney U test; Pearson’s chi-square test for categorical variables. Pre- and postoperative data of each group were compared by paired t -test or Wilcoxon-test. ROC curve analysis was used to determine different cut-offs. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used for either TR recurrence or late RV remodeling, and reported as the hazard ratio with 95% confidence intervals. In case of correlation between covariates, different models were built. For all tests, a p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. The SPSS software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) and R Core Team (2013). (R: Vienna, Austria. URLhttp://www.R-project.org/) were used.