Statistical analysis
Continuous variables are presented as mean ± SD when normally
distributed and as median and interquartile range otherwise. Categorical
variables are expressed as percentages of the population. Continuous
variables were tested by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to assess the
normality of distribution. An independent t-test or Wilcoxon signed-rank
test was used for various comparisons among groups [MV pathologies,
atrial fibrillation (AF), left atrial (LA) dilatation, left ventricular
(LV) dilatation and coronary artery disease (CAD)] and Bland-Altman
methodology and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were used for
comparison of the two methods (TTE and TOE). All tests were 2-sided, and
a significance level of 5% was used (p<0.05). Statistical
analysis was performed using the SPSS 23.0 statistical software package
(SPSS Inc, Illinois, USA).