Statistical analyses
REGRESSION
Data are presented as medians (interquartile ranges) for continuous variables and percentages for categorical variables. We used the Wilcoxon, Steel–Dwass, and Chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests for comparing two groups of continuous variables, multiple comparisons between continuous variables, and comparing categorical variables, respectively. Furthermore, ICU and 28-day mortality rates were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression, and the explanatory variables were age and SOFA score. The data were analyzed using the statistical software JMP12 for Windows (SAS Institute Japan, Tokyo, Japan). Results were considered statistically significant at P-values less than 0.05. Since this was a pilot study, a sample size estimation was not conducted.