About the Authors

Ghazaleh Gouya

Contributed equally to this work with: Ghazaleh Gouya, Gisela Sturm

Affiliation Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Gisela Sturm

Contributed equally to this work with: Ghazaleh Gouya, Gisela Sturm

Affiliation Division of Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Medical Genetics, Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria

Claudia Lamina

Affiliation Division of Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Medical Genetics, Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria

Emanuel Zitt

Affiliation Department of Nephrology and Dialysis, Academic Teaching Hospital Feldkirch, Feldkirch, Austria

Otto Freistätter

Affiliation Vorarlberg Institute for Vascular Investigation and Treatment (VIVIT), Feldkirch, Austria

Joachim Struck

Affiliation Research Department, B.R.A.H.M.S GmbH (Part of ThermoFisher Scientific), Hennigsdorf/Berlin, Germany

Michael Wolzt

Affiliation Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Florian Knoll

Affiliation Department of Nephrology and Dialysis, Academic Teaching Hospital Feldkirch, Feldkirch, Austria

Friederike Lins

Affiliation Vorarlberg Institute for Vascular Investigation and Treatment (VIVIT), Feldkirch, Austria

Karl Lhotta

Affiliations Department of Nephrology and Dialysis, Academic Teaching Hospital Feldkirch, Feldkirch, Austria, Vorarlberg Institute for Vascular Investigation and Treatment (VIVIT), Feldkirch, Austria

Ulrich Neyer

Affiliations Department of Nephrology and Dialysis, Academic Teaching Hospital Feldkirch, Feldkirch, Austria, Vorarlberg Institute for Vascular Investigation and Treatment (VIVIT), Feldkirch, Austria

Florian Kronenberg

Florian.Kronenberg@i-med.ac.at

Affiliation Division of Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Medical Genetics, Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and declare the following concerning conflicts of interest: Joachim Struck is an employee of the Research Department of B.R.A.H.M.S GmbH and was scientifically involved in that project; he is coauthor of the paper and did not influence the authors in terms of interpretation of the results or its writing. B.R.A.H.M.S GmbH holds patent rights on MR-pro ANP and MR-pro ADM. These are EP 03785634 “Sandwich immunoassay for identifying partial proANP peptides” (priority date: 20.11.2002) and EP 04700013 “Identifying a midregional proadrenomedullin partial peptide in biological liquids for diagnostic purposes, and immunoassays for conducting an identification of this type” (priority date: 10.04.2003). The authors confirm that this does not alter their adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors http://www.plosone.org/static/policies.action#sharing. The remaining authors are all from academic institutions and were absolutely independent from that company to perform the analysis of the data.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: GG GS CL UN F. Kronenberg. Performed the experiments: GS CL F. Kronenberg. Analyzed the data: GS CL F. Kronenberg. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: GS CL EZ JS MW F. Knoll FL KL UN F. Kronenberg. Wrote the paper: GG GS CL EZ F. Knoll KL UN F. Kronenberg. Recruitment and follow-up of patients: EZ OF F. Knoll FL KL UN.