2.2. Ethics
The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the respective Institutional Review Board (IRB) Research Ethics Review Committees of Boramae Hospital (IRB No. 30-2018-62) and Uijeongbu St. Mary’s Hospital (UIRB-New 2020092-013). All participants provided written informed consent before any screening assessment was completed. The study was retrospectively registered with the Clinical Trials Information Service (CRIS) of the Republic of Korea on 8 August 2023 (KCT0008749).