About the Authors

Yi-Chun Tsai

Contributed equally to this work with: Yi-Chun Tsai, Chi-Chih Hung

Affiliation Division of Nephrology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Chi-Chih Hung

Contributed equally to this work with: Yi-Chun Tsai, Chi-Chih Hung

Affiliations Division of Nephrology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Faculty of Renal Care, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Mei-Chuan Kuo

Affiliations Division of Nephrology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Faculty of Renal Care, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Jer-Chia Tsai

Affiliations Division of Nephrology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Faculty of Renal Care, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Shih-Meng Yeh

Affiliation Division of Nephrology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Shang-Jyh Hwang

Affiliations Division of Nephrology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Faculty of Renal Care, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Yi-Wen Chiu

Affiliations Division of Nephrology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Faculty of Renal Care, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Hung-Tien Kuo

Affiliations Division of Nephrology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Faculty of Renal Care, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Jer-Ming Chang

jemich@kmu.edu.tw

Affiliations Division of Nephrology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Faculty of Renal Care, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Municipal Hsiao-Kang Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Hung-Chun Chen

Affiliations Division of Nephrology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Faculty of Renal Care, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: Y-CT C-CH J-MC. Performed the experiments: Y-CT C-CH M-CK J-CT S-MY. Analyzed the data: Y-CT C-CH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: C-CH S-JH Y-WC H-TK J-MC H-CC. Wrote the paper: Y-CT.