*2.5. Statistical Analysis*

The distribution of the obtained values was verified using Shapiro–Wilk test. The groups were compared using the t-Student test (for parametric distributions), the Mann–Whitney U test, and the Kruskal–Wallis Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with multiple comparisons (for non-parametric distributions), as well as the chi<sup>2</sup> test. The correlations were verified using Pearson correlation coe fficient (for parametric distributions) and Spearman rank correlation coe fficient (for non-parametric distributions).

The accepted level of significance was *p* ≤ 0.05. The following software was used: Statistica 8.0 (Statsoft Inc., Tulsa, OK, USA), Statgraphics Plus for Windows 4.0 (Statgraphics Technologies Inc., The Plains, VA, USA).
