INVESTIGATIONS INTO HYPERLIPIDEMIA AND ITS POSSIBLE ...

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the reference range, while Group 2 consisted of dogs with serum triglyceride
concentrations above the upper limit of the reference range (>108 mg/dL).
Statistical analysis
The data were analyzed for normal distribution using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov
test. All data failed normality testing and non-parametric methods were used for further
analysis. The data were analyzed for correlation between serum cPLI and triglyceride
concentrations using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. The median serum cPLI
concentration was compared between groups with the Mann-Whitney U test. Receiver
operator characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed and the likelihood ratio, which
indicates an estimate of how much a positive or negative result affects the likelihood that
a patient would have the disease, was calculated. 265 Proportions of dogs with increased
serum cPLI concentrations were compared between groups using Fisher’s exact tests.
Odds ratios and their 95% CI were also calculated. Dogs with serum cPLI concentrations
in the equivocal range (e.g., neither within the reference range nor consistent with
pancreatitis; n=33), were excluded from this analysis as this could potentially affect the
validity of the results. All statistical analyses were performed using a statistical software
package f and a p value of < 0.05 was considered significant.
Results
There was a significant but weak positive correlation between serum cPLI and
triglyceride concentrations in all dogs (Spearman r=0.3215; P