Ethics approval and consent to participate:
The trial was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Please also refer to the online supplement Table S1.
Consent for publication:
Not applicable
Availability of data and materials:
The data are not available in a public repository. Access to the data is dependent upon ethics approval and restricted by the legislation of the European Union and the countries providing data to the study. Furthermore, approval by the Principal Investigator of each cohort study and the MORGAM/ BiomarCaRE Steering Group is required to release the data. The MORGAM Manual at https://www.thl.fi/publications/morgam/manual/contents.htm gives more information on access to the data.
Competing interests:
Dr. Sinning is deputy editor of the European Heart Journal – Case Reports and BioMed Central editorial board member for BMC Cardiovascular Disorders
Dr. Söderberg reports grants and other from Actelion Ltd, outside the submitted work.
Dr. Schnabel reports personal fees from BMS/Pfizer, outside the submitted work.
Dr. Makarova reports personal fees from Abbott Laboratories, outside the submitted work.
Dr. Koenig reports personal fees from AstraZeneca, personal fees from Novartis, personal fees from Pfizer, personal fees from The Medicines Company, personal fees from GSK, personal fees from DalCor, personal fees from Sanofi, personal fees from Berlin-Chemie, personal fees from Kowa, personal fees from Amgen, grants and non-financial support from Roche Diagnostics, grants and non-financial support from Beckmann, grants and non-financial support from Singulex, grants and non-financial support from Abbott, all outside the submitted work.
Dr. Blankenberg reports grants and personal fees from Abbott Diagnostics, grants and personal fees from Bayer, grants and personal fees from SIEMENS, grants from Singulex, grants and personal fees from Thermo Fisher, personal fees from Astra Zeneca, grants and personal fees from Bayer, personal fees from AMGEN, personal fees from Medtronic, personal fees from Pfizer, personal fees from Roche, personal fees from Siemens Diagnostics, personal fees from Novartis, personal fees from Abbott, all outside the submitted work.
All other authors have nothing to disclose in relation to the current study.
Funding:
The MORGAM Project received funding from EU projects MORGAM (Biomed, BMH4-CT98-3183), GenomEUtwin (FP5, QLG2-CT-2002-01254), ENGAGE (FP7, HEALTH-F4-2007-201413), CHANCES (FP7, HEALTH-F3-2010-242244), BiomarCaRE (FP7, HEALTH-F2-2011-278913), euCanSHare (Horizon 2020, No. 825903), and AFFECT-EU (Horizon 2020, No. 847770), as well as from the Medical Research Council, London (G0601463, No. 80983: Biomarkers in the MORGAM Populations). This has supported central coordination, workshops, and part of the activities of the MORGAM Data Center, the MORGAM Laboratories, and the MORGAM Participating Centers.
Author contributions:
C. Sinning: guarantor of the manuscript, literature search, study design, figures, data analysis, writing, data interpretation
N. Makarova: literature search, study design, figures, data analysis, writing, data interpretation
H. Völzke: data collection, data interpretation, writing
R. B. Schnabel: data interpretation, writing
N. Rübsamen: statistical analysis, data analysis, writing, data interpretation
F. Ojeda: statistical analysis, data analysis, writing, data interpretation
M. Dörr: writing, data interpretation, data collection
S. B. Felix: writing, data interpretation, data collection
W. Koenig: study design, writing, data interpretation, data collection
A. Peters: writing, data collection
W. Rathmann: writing, data interpretation
B. Schöttker: writing, data interpretation
H. Brenner: writing, data interpretation
G. Veronesi: writing, data interpretation, data collection
G. Cesana: writing, data interpretation, data collection
P. Brambilla: writing, data interpretation, data collection
T. Palosaari: writing, data interpretation, data collection
K. Kuulasmaa: writing, study design, data interpretation, data collection
I. Njølstad: writing, data interpretation, data collection
E. B. Mathiesen: writing, data interpretation, data collection
T. Wilsgaard: writing, data interpretation, data collection
S. Blankenberg: study design, data interpretation, writing, supervision of the study
S. Söderberg: study design, data interpretation, writing, supervision of the study
M. M. Ferrario: study design, data interpretation, writing, supervision of the study
B. Thorand: study design, data interpretation, writing, supervision of the study
C. Sinning and N. Makarova contributed equally as first authors.
S. Söderberg, M. M. Ferrario and B. Thorand contributed equally as last authors.
Acknowledgments:
Editorial assistance, in the form of language editing and correction, was provided by XpertScientific Editing and Consulting Services.