About the Authors
- Azusa Hara
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Affiliation Studies Coordinating Centre, Research Unit Hypertension and Cardiovascular Epidemiology, KU Leuven Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Lutgarde Thijs
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Affiliation Studies Coordinating Centre, Research Unit Hypertension and Cardiovascular Epidemiology, KU Leuven Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Kei Asayama
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Affiliations Studies Coordinating Centre, Research Unit Hypertension and Cardiovascular Epidemiology, KU Leuven Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
- Lotte Jacobs
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Affiliation Studies Coordinating Centre, Research Unit Hypertension and Cardiovascular Epidemiology, KU Leuven Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Ji-Guang Wang
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Affiliation Center for Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
- Jan A. Staessen
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* E-mail: jan.staessen@med.kuleuven.be
Affiliations Studies Coordinating Centre, Research Unit Hypertension and Cardiovascular Epidemiology, KU Leuven Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, Department of Epidemiology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
Competing Interests
Bayer AG funded investigator-initiated Syst-Eur trial (1988-1997). The corresponding author owns the data and funding by Bayer does therefore in no way alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
Author Contributions
Conceived and designed the experiments: AH LT KA LJ JGW JAS. Analyzed the data: AH LT KA LJ. Wrote the paper: AH JAS. Coordinated the Syst-Eur trial and managed funding: JAS. Constructed the database: LT.