*5.5. Statistical Analysis*

The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used to examine the normality of distribution of continuous variables, which were expressed as mean ± standard deviation or as median with IQR. Comparisons between the high AS and control groups were analyzed by the independent Student's t-test or two-tailed Mann–Whitney U test, as appropriate. Categorical data were represented as number and percentage and were analyzed using the χ2 test. Continuous variables that did not have a normal distribution were logarithmically transformed for use in the linear regression analysis. Multivariate logistic and linear regression analyses were used to assess the risk factors for high central AS and the relationship between all variables and cfPWV, respectively. The best cuto ff PC level to predict high central AS was determined using the ROC curve to calculate the area under the curve (AUC). An analysis was regarded as significant if the *p* value was <0.05. SPSS for Windows (version 19.0; SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used for analyses.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, Y.-H.L. and B.-G.H.; methodology, Y.-H.L. and B.-G.H.; formal analysis, C.-H.W. and B.-G.H.; investigation, Y.-H.L., C.-H.W., C.-H.K., and Y.-L.L.; data curation, Y.-H.L., C.-H.W., C.-H.K., and Y.-L.L.; funding acquisition, Y.-H.L.; writing—original draft preparation, C.-H.W. and J.-P.T.; writing—review and editing, J.-P.T. and B.-G.H.; supervision, B.-G.H. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This study was supported by a gran<sup>t</sup> from Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Taiwan (TCRD107-56).

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
