Statistical Analysis
SPSS statistical software version 22.0 (IBM, Chicago, IL, USA) was
conducted to analyse the data. To test the normality of the data,
Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests were used. To express quantitative variables,
the mean ± standard deviation (SD) was used, while the numbers and
percentages were used to express the categorical variables. When the
parameters had normal distributions, the independent t-tests were
applied to compare the groups. On the other hand, the parameters without
normal distributions, the Mann-Whitney U tests were applied to compare
the groups. Either Chi-square tests or Fisher’s exact tests were applied
to determine the dissimilarities for categorical variables. To assess
the correlation between the parameters, we applied a Spearman’s
correlation test. To identify independent relations in patients with
cirrhosis, probable parameters obtained in univariate analyses were
included into multivariate LR (logistic regression) analysis. A pvalue of < 0.05 indicated statistical significance.