Relative microvessel area of the primary tumour, and not lymph node status, predicts the presence of bone marrow micrometastases detected by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in patients with clinically non-metastatic breast cancer

Table 3 Coagulation and angiogenesis factors

Factor	N	Mean (median)	SD (SE)	95% CI
sIL-6	68	2.18 (0.35)	3.92 (0.48)	1.21–3.13
sVEGF	68	356.4 (285.9)	259.5 (31.47)	293.5–419.2
pVEGF	67	34.81 (22.2)	52.56 (6.42)	21.99–47.63
D-D	63	570.1 (419)	504.9 (63.61)	442.9–697.2
Platelets	68	267.2 (266)	70.66 (8.57)	250.1–284.3
Fibrinogen	63	320.9 (306)	73.47 (9.26)	302.4–339.4
sVEGF/pl	68	1.37 (1.15)	0.92 (0.11)	1.15–1.60

Abbreviations and units: D-D, D-dimers (ng/ml); platelets, 10³ platelets/μl; pVEGF, plasma vascular endothelial growth factor (pg/ml); sIL-6, serum interleukin-6 (pg/ml); sVEGF, serum VEGF (pg/ml); sVEGF/pl, serum VEGF (pg/ml) per 10⁶ platelets. Fibrinogen is shown in mg/dl. CI, confidence interval; SD, standard deviation; SE, standard error.

ISSN: 1465-542X