Footnotes

• Contributors The study was designed by AB-A. AB-A, RCC, EdSMF and HSMC gave substantial contributions to patient recruitment and data acquisition. EB conceived the necessary conditions to conduct the study at BioVasc laboratory. Data were analysed by AB-A, RdMP and CAV-N. The report was written by AB-A, RdMP, CAV-N and EB. All authors approved the final version.

• Funding Rio de Janeiro State Agency for Research Support (FAPERJ) and National Research Council of Brazil.

• Competing interests None declared.

• Patient consent Obtained.

• Ethics approval Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Ethics Committee.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.