Table IX.

Comparison between intermittently-detected antibodies and the other non-persistent antibodies: ordinal and scalar variables.

	Intermittently- detected	Other non-persistent	p
Age (years)	66±17	64±18	NS
Follow-up (days)	885 (414–2144)	341 (87–1023)	0.002
N. of tests after first detection	5 (3–6)	2 (1–3)	<0.001
Initial score	2 (1–3)	2 (1–3)	NS
Maximum score	3 (2–3)	2 (1–3)	0.001

The statistical significance of the differences was evaluated using the Mann-Whitney U-test.