Baseline Demographics, Physical Examinations and Data Collection
Case record form (CRF) and electronic data capture (EDC) are used for data collection and data management.
Data collected at the baseline will include participants’ demographics including date of birth, gender, education, occupation, and health insurance, lifestyles including tobacco smoking, alcohol drinking, diet pattern (food frequency), and time on sedentary life, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), heart rate, height, weight; medical history of hypertension, diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidemia, and current use of medications (statins, aspirin/clopidogrel, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blocker, β-receptor blocker, calcium channel blockers, insulin, hypoglycemic medicine, and nitrates). Blood pressure and heart rate were measured by pulse wave sphygmomanometer (RBP-9000c, Shenzhen, China) for 3 times after 30 seconds interval. Baseline laboratory blood parameters to be collected include total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), C-reactive protein (CRP), homocysteine (HCY), uric acid, urea nitrogen, creatinine, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total protein, albumin, lactate dehydrogenase, hydroxybutyric acid, creatine kinase, creatine kinase isoenzyme.
Hypertension is defined as SBP≥140 mmHg or DBP≥90mmHg or current use of anti-hypertension medications. Diabetes mellitus is defined as either glycosylated hemoglobin ( HbA1c) ≥6.5% or FPG ≥126 mg/ dL (7.0 mmol/L) or 2-h plasma glucose ≥200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L) during an oral glucose tolerance test; or currently taking blood glucose lowering medications or insulin. Hyperlipidemia includes the following: TC >200 mg/dL/(5.18 mmol/L); or LDL-C ≥ 130 mg/dL (3.37 mmol/L); or HDL-C <40 mg/dL (1.04 mmol/L) in men and <50 mg/dL (1.30 mmol/L) in women; or lipoprotein a >50 mg/dL (125 nmol/L), or persistent elevations of TG ≥ 175 mg/dL (≥ 1.97 mmol/L); or currently receiving antilipidemic medications.