Data with no responses, those named with a wrong concept, or those triggered by a cough were considered as invalid responses (5.6%) and were excluded from further analysis.
In addition, data from two subjects (Subject 8 and Subject 9) were considered as invalid due to thick secretions that compromised interpretation of ELISA results.
In our study, Sanger sequencing and HRM test results were considered as invalid when DNA could not be amplified.
Of these, 61 (11.2%) could not be evaluated by COBRA analysis and were considered as invalid in the analysis.
A result is considered as invalid if one of the delta Ct or internal control Ct values falls outside the expected limits.
Where more than 200 sessions per week were reported, this was considered as invalid and the record was excluded from analysis.
At least four other independent calls were made at different hours and on different days before an unanswered phone number was considered as invalid.
BMI values of less than nine and more than 50 were considered as invalid and these participants were excluded from analysis.
In addition, to ensure only high quality data were used for analysis, spots that gave invalid results in one strain tested were considered as invalid results in other tests and thus, discarded.
The fluctuation of the recorded signals was checked, where the signal with large fluctuation was considered as invalid because it might indicate an unstable physiology conditions during the recording.
