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.