Statistical Analysis
The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences
(SPSS Inc.) v22.0 and GraphPad Prism Software 8 was used for graphics.
Demographic and clinical features were assessed by descriptive analysis
and shown as percentages and mean ± standard deviation or median
according to distribution of the data. Continuous variables were
compared by independent t test or Mann Whitney-U test between two groups
and Kruskal Wallis or One Way Anova test with Bonferroni correction
between multiple groups depending on the distribution of the data. The
categorical variables were compared with X2 test.
Correlation analysis were performed by Pearson’ or Spearman’s
correlation tests according to the distribution of the data. Cut off
values of FMD and biological markers were determined by receiver
operator characteristic curve (ROC) analysis. Binominal Exact Test was
used to compare Area Under Curve (AUC) of biological markers and FMD. In
all analysis, p value less then <0.05 was considered
statistically significant.