LAUSR

from the analysis. When we perform a correlation analysis (Spearman or Kendall tau) between the relevant variables, the coefficient of r is lower than 0.7 for all variables. According to these results, there is no multicollinearity in our study; for this reason we did not need to perform any regression modelling to find the association between the variables with moderate to high degree of tinnitus. Second, we stated in the method section that the systolic and diastolic blood pressures were recorded after 5 min of rest. Since our study design was cross-sectional, we performed these measurements before the Doppler ultrasonographic examinations to exclude the individual fluctuations for the blood pressure. Even though we have not specified this deficiency in the text, we have done these measurements at least three times from each arm and have received the highest average of three measurements. So, we did not think any regression dilution bias to our manuscript.