About the Authors

Shanying Chen

Contributed equally to this work with: Shanying Chen, Youming Chen

Affiliations Department of Nephrology, Third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, Department of Nephrology, Zhangzhou Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Zhangzhou, Fujian, China

Youming Chen

Contributed equally to this work with: Shanying Chen, Youming Chen

Affiliation Clinical Laboratory, Third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Xinyu Liu

Affiliation Department of Nephrology, Third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Mi Li

Affiliation Blood purification center, No. 5 Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China

Bide Wu

Affiliation Department of Nephrology, Zhangzhou Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Zhangzhou, Fujian, China

Yongqiang Li

Affiliation Department of Nephrology, Third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Yan Liang

Affiliation Department of Nephrology, Third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Xiaofei Shao

Affiliation Department of Nephrology, Third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Harry Holthöfer

Affiliation National Centre for Sensor Research/BioAnalytical Sciences, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

Hequn Zou

hequnzou@hotmail.com

Affiliation Department of Nephrology, Third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SC HZ. Performed the experiments: YC. Analyzed the data: SC YC XL ML Y. Li Y. Liang XS. Wrote the manuscript: SC HZ BW HH. Performed this epidemiological survey: XL ML Y. Li Y. Liang XS.