About the Authors

Qing Li

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People's Republic of China

Rui-Xing Yin

yinruixing@yahoo.com.cn

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People's Republic of China

Xian-Liang Wei

Affiliation Department of Anatomy, School of Premedical Sciences, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People's Republic of China

Ting-Ting Yan

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People's Republic of China

Lynn Htet Htet Aung

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People's Republic of China

Dong-Feng Wu

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People's Republic of China

Jin-Zhen Wu

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People's Republic of China

Wei-Xiong Lin

Affiliation Department of Molecular Biology, Medical Scientific Research Center, Nanning, Guangxi, People's Republic of China

Cheng-Wu Liu

Affiliation Department of Pathophysiology, School of Premedical Sciences, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People's Republic of China

Shang-Ling Pan

Affiliation Department of Pathophysiology, School of Premedical Sciences, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People's Republic of China

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: R-XY QL. Performed the experiments: QL X-LW T-TY LHHA D-FW. Analyzed the data: QL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: R-XY QL. Wrote the paper: R-XY QL. Carried out the epidemiological survey and collected the samples: R-XY LHHA D-FW J-ZW W-XL C-WL S-LP.