Statistics.

Data were analyzed using GraphPad Prism (GraphPad Software). Descriptive statistical analyses were performed. Continuous data that did not follow a normal distribution were described as medians with IQRs, and differences were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test (2-tailed), Wilcoxon’s paired t test (2-tailed), or the Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn’s post hoc test for pairwise multiple comparisons as appropriate. Contingency table analyses were conducted using Fisher’s exact test. Correlations for nonparametric data were assessed using Spearman’s rank correlation with a 95% CI. A P value of less than 0.05 was considered significant.