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Article History

Received: 10 January 2018

Accepted: 14 June 2018

First Online: 9 July 2018

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: Written consent was gathered from all patients, and included consent for data collection and publication; in the case of language barriers or of intellectual deficits, the patient’s proxy or legal guardian was asked for permission.In keeping with current French legislation, the study was approved by the ethics committee in Le Mans (“Avis favorable du groupe d’éthique du Centre Hospitalier du Mans”, 16 mars 2017).Since the present cross sectional study did not involve additional blood tests or the use of imaging techniques the local ethics committee in Cagliari (Comitato Etico Indipendente Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Cagliari) ruled out the need for formal approval.

: This is a series with anonymous non-individual data. Written consent was gathered from all patients, and included consent for data collection and publication.

: GB Piccoli is section editor and A Pani is associated editor for BMC Nephrology.

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