Table 3.

Comparison of the alpha-diversity of the intestinal flora between the observation and control groups ($\overline{x}$ ±s).

Group	Chao index		Ace index		Simpson index		Shannon index
	Before treatment	After treatment	Before treatment	After treatment	Before treatment	After treatment	Before treatment	After treatment
Observation (n = 34)	141.22 ± 20.36	193.65 ± 26.31∗	136.23 ± 21.34	167.19 ± 23.42∗	0.33 ± 0.09	0.22 ± 0.05∗	1.36 ± 0.33	2.29 ± 0.46∗
Control (n = 34)	139.34 ± 22.98	169.27 ± 21.98∗	134.87 ± 19.68	152.26 ± 24.67∗	0.34 ± 0.08	0.28 ± 0.06∗	1.40 ± 0.41	2.11 ± 0.51∗
t	0.518	5.566	0.376	3.641	0.660	6.604	0.660	2.204
P	0.606	<0.001	0.708	<0.001	0.512	<0.001	0.511	0.030

^∗ P < 0.05 vs. the same group before treatment.