About the Authors

Mayumi Yoshihara

Affiliation Department of Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolic Medicine, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan

Hiroshi Akasaka

Affiliation Department of Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolic Medicine, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan

Hirofumi Ohnishi

Affiliations Department of Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolic Medicine, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan, Department of Public Health, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan

Takayuki Miki

Affiliation Department of Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolic Medicine, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan

Tetsuaki Furukawa

Affiliation Department of Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolic Medicine, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan

Satoshi Yuda

Affiliation Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan

Shigeyuki Saitoh

Affiliation Department of Nursing, Sapporo Medical University School of Health Sciences, Sapporo, Japan

Tetsuji Miura

miura@sapmed.ac.jp

Affiliation Department of Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolic Medicine, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: HA HO T. Miura. Performed the experiments: MY HA HO TF SS. Analyzed the data: MY HA HO T. Miura. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: HA HO. Wrote the paper: MY HA HO T. Miki SY T. Miura.