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Figure 4 Because hypertension can affect hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) levels and hypertension has a higher prevalence among obese subjects, hypertension could act as a confounding factor. Therefore, we excluded all subjects with either known hypertension or documented hypertension at the time of blood draw (either systolic blood pressure >140 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure >90 mm Hg). The difference in mean serum HGF levels between the remaining obese and lean subjects continued to be highly significant (A). Furthermore, the correlation between body mass index and HGF levels was even stronger in this group of subjects (B). Open squares = lean subjects; solid circles = obese subjects.
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