Evaluate the collective function of references cited together in a given text segment.
Classify their combined role into one of the following categories: 'method', 'background', or 'result'.

Text:In accordance with our results, several studies demonstrated increased serum levels of sTNF-≈í¬±R1 in the patients with chronic liver disease (Jorge et al. 2004), liver cirrhosis (von Baehr et al.
Category: