About the Authors

Michael S. Balzer

balzer.michael@mh-hannover.de (MSB); schmitt.roland@mh-hannover.de (RS)

Affiliation Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Mechthild M. Gross

Affiliation Midwifery Research and Education Unit, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Ralf Lichtinghagen

Affiliation Institute of Clinical Chemistry, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Hermann Haller

Affiliation Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Roland Schmitt

balzer.michael@mh-hannover.de (MSB); schmitt.roland@mh-hannover.de (RS)

Affiliation Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MSB RS. Performed the experiments: MSB RL RS. Analyzed the data: MSB MMG RL RS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MMG RL. Wrote the paper: MSB MMG RL HH RS.