Endothelial function
hyperaemia
HYPERAEMIA, PAT
Endothelial function was evaluated using the EndoPAT device (Itamar Medical Ltd, Caesarea, Israel). This non-invasive operator-independent system consists of finger probes that measures peripheral arterial tone (PAT) for 5 min at rest and during reactive hyperaemia induced by 5-min forearm cuff occlusion. The reactive hyperaemia index (RHI) is the post- to pre- occlusion PAT signal ratio in the occluded arm relative to the same ratio in the control arm. RHI was measured at baseline, 6 months and 12 months (Supplementary Figure 