Statistical analysis
The baseline, demographic, and clinical characteristics of the two
groups were compared using the independent t-test and Fisher’s exact
test (χ2). Paired t-test was used for the comparison of changes before
and after treatment within each study group. Independent t-tests were
used to compare the mean differences of the celery and placebo groups.
All p-values were two-sided, without adjustment of multiple comparisons,
and a p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically
significant. The analyses were performed using R software (version
4.0.5, R Foundation for Statistical Computing).