About the Authors

Amit Varma

Affiliation Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, VCU Pauley Heart Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America

Anindita Das

Affiliation Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, VCU Pauley Heart Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America

Nicholas N. Hoke

Affiliation Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, VCU Pauley Heart Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America

David E. Durrant

Affiliation Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, VCU Pauley Heart Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America

Fadi N. Salloum

Affiliation Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, VCU Pauley Heart Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America

Rakesh C. Kukreja

rakesh@vcu.edu

Affiliation Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, VCU Pauley Heart Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AV FNS NNH DD AD RCK. Performed the experiments: AV FNS NNH DD AD. Analyzed the data: AV FNS AD RCK. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AV FNS NNH AD. Wrote the paper: AV RCK FNS.