2.5 Statistical analyses
After examining variance equivalence and normal distribution,
a nonparametric Mann-Whitney U
test was applied to assess the difference between pre-treatment and
post-treatment serum concentration of MMP-9, while Chi-squared test was
employed to evaluate the correlation between outcomes of patients and
clinical characters. Parameters that were statistically significant in
the Chi-squared test were further carried out in the binary multiple
logistic regression analysis. All analysis was performed with SPSS
version 22.0 and the figures were completed with GraphPad version 7.04.
A P value <0.05 was considered to be significant.