Table 1.

Intergroup and intragroup comparison of the number of small, medium, and large vessels in the three regions taken separately or as a whole

	SP				NP
	CTD	CTKE	CTSE	CT	CTD	CTKE	CTSE	CT
Small	3.20 (±1.68)	5.40 (±2.90)	6.80 (±1.89)	15.40 (±4.46)	3.88 (±2.25)	7.50 (±4.21)	8.50 (±2.29)	19.88 (± 5.48)
Medium	2.60 (±1.64)	2.80 (±2.49)	2.80 (±1.48)	8.20 (±4.01)	2.25 (±0.83)	1.50 (±1.00)	2.30 (±1.79)	6.05 (± 2.36)
Large	2.20 (±1.15)	0.60 (±1.34)	0.50 (±0.50)	3.30 (±2.68)	2.00 (±1.22)	0.30 (±0.45)	0.60 (±1.34)	2.90 (± 2.13)
Total	8.00 (±3.82)	8.80 (±3.17)	10.10 (±0.74)	26.90 (±6.20)	8.13 (±4.16)	9.30 (±4.16)	11.40 (±2.97)	28.83 (± 7.65)

CTD = deep connective tissue in the central portion of the biopsy, CTKE = connective tissue portion of the biopsy immediately subjacent to the oral epithelium, CTSE = connective tissue portion of the biopsy immediately subjacent to the sulcular epithelium, CT = the whole connective tissue of the papilla, NP = nonsmoker patients with periodontitis, SP = smoker patients with periodontitis