“…The blood was processed to obtain plasma and serum samples that were immediately frozen and stored at Ϫ70°C until analysis. The determinations were made in a single run by central laboratory personnel blinded to the experimental groups and included brain natriuretic peptide (BNP, MEIA AxSYM-Abbott, Abbott Park, IL), high-sensitivity cardiac troponin-T (hs-cTnT, Elecsys, Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany) 16 , pentraxin-3 (PTX3, ELISA based on in-house reagents 17 ), high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP, turbidimetric method, Beckman Coulter DxC800, Brea, CA), myoglobin (MEIA AxSYM-Abbott), creatine kinase (CK, Rosalki enzymatic method), creatine kinase isoenzyme MB (CK-MB, MEIA Axsym-Abbott, Abbott Park, IL). Urinary albumin excretion was measured using a radioimmunoassay (coated tubes, Immunotech, Marseille, France), indexed to creatinine, and expressed as the urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR, mg/g of creatinine).…”