Then the main criterion to demonstrate the effectiveness of a diet enriched with probiotics is the AUC of circulating levels of endotoxins ((pg/ml) using the Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay) observed for each patient. Endotoxin levels were analysed on samples of peripheral blood. The two arms of equal size will be considered significantly different when compared to the AUC of circulating levels of endotoxin if the null hypothesis (AUC is the same for both arms) is rejected in favor of the alternative hypothesis (AUC differs between the two arms - Wilcoxon test)