About the Authors

R. Croft Thomas Jr.

Contributed equally to this work with: R. Croft Thomas Jr., Patrick M. Cowley, Abhishek Singh

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, and Research Service, VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America, Department of Medicine and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Patrick M. Cowley

Contributed equally to this work with: R. Croft Thomas Jr., Patrick M. Cowley, Abhishek Singh

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, and Research Service, VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America, Department of Medicine and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Abhishek Singh

Contributed equally to this work with: R. Croft Thomas Jr., Patrick M. Cowley, Abhishek Singh

Current address: Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, and Research Service, VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America, Department of Medicine and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Bat-Erdene Myagmar

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, and Research Service, VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America, Department of Medicine and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Philip M. Swigart

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, and Research Service, VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Anthony J. Baker

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, and Research Service, VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America, Department of Medicine and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Paul C. Simpson

paul.simpson@ucsf.edu

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, and Research Service, VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America, Department of Medicine and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RCT AS AJB PCS. Performed the experiments: RCT PMC AS B-EM PMS. Analyzed the data: RCT PMC AS PMS AJB PCS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: B-EM. Wrote the paper: PCS AJB RCT AS.