Statistical analyses

The statistical significance of differences between means for cross-sectional patient groups and between each patient group and their respective control group was determined with an unpaired Student’s t test including a Bonferroni correction (Prism 6; GraphPad, San Diego, CA, USA). The discriminatory ability of each exosomal protein is presented using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses with confidence intervals estimated based on the binomial exact distribution (STATA 13.1; College Station, TX, USA). Discriminant classifier analyses were performed to evaluate the conjoint ability of exosomal proteins to differentiate the subject groups (STATA 13.1).