About the Authors

Ramune Sepetiene

sepetiene@yahoo.co.uk

Affiliation Institute of Cardiology of the Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu 17, Kaunas, Lithuania

Vaiva Patamsyte

Affiliation Institute of Cardiology of the Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu 17, Kaunas, Lithuania

Giedrius Zukovas

Affiliation Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Eiveniu 2, Kaunas, Lithuania

Giedre Jariene

Affiliation Institute of Cardiology of the Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu 17, Kaunas, Lithuania

Zita Stanioniene

Affiliation Institute of Cardiology of the Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu 17, Kaunas, Lithuania

Rimantas Benetis

Affiliations Institute of Cardiology of the Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu 17, Kaunas, Lithuania, Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Eiveniu 2, Kaunas, Lithuania

Vaiva Lesauskaite

Affiliation Institute of Cardiology of the Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu 17, Kaunas, Lithuania

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RS VP GJ VL. Performed the experiments: RS VP. Analyzed the data: RS VP ZS VL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: RS VP GZ GJ ZS RB VL. Wrote the paper: RS VP VL.