Exclusion Criteria
The main exclusion criteria were refusal to provide
necessary informed consent, neurocognitive or
psychiatric condition which prevents reliable clinical
data (as judged by investigators) from being obtained,
life expectancy of less than 6 months (e.g., malignant
metastatic neoplasm), hemodynamically significant
valvular or congenital heart disease, treatment with
immunosuppressive agents, or any other condition or
situation which, in the opinion of the investigator,
was deemed unsuitable for this registration. Patients
were not allowed to participate if they had experienced
an acute stroke, acute coronary syndrome
(ACS), or coronary revascularization procedure
within the past 3 months, or had been scheduled to
undergo coronary bypass graft surgery or valvularsurgery before study enrollment.