Fasting venous blood was collected from each fasting patient participating in the biomarker substudy within 24±12 hours after randomization. Blood samples were collected by face-to-face interviews at each center and delivered through cold-chain to Beijing Tiantan Hospital and stored at −80° C. GA assay was centrally measured with a specific equipment (catalog number 4085-717; Ruiyuan Bio-Technique Co.Ltd., Ningbo, China) through a Roche Modular P800 system. We used the percentage of total serum albumin to express the levels of GA. [38 (link), 39 (link)] Hs-CRP was measured through a turbidimetric immunoassay (Ji’en Technique Co Ltd, Shanghai, China) on a Roche Modular P800 system (Roche, Basel, Switzerland). [31 (link)] All measurements were centrally conducted by laboratory technicians who were not informed of study assignments and clinical outcomes of patients.
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