Document is current

Article History

Received: 2 April 2019

Accepted: 21 June 2019

First Online: 24 September 2019

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: We confirm that we have read the Journal’s position on issues involved in ethical publication and affirm that this work is consistent with those guidelines. The study protocol and the amendment for the 5-year extension was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the medical faculty of Kiel University. All participants gave informed consent prior to inclusion.

: Not applicable.

: All authors report no potential conflict of interest regarding this manuscript. Over the last 12 months FS report grants and personal fees from Boston Scientific, a research grant from Medtronic and personal fees from Abbott for educational trainings, JV received grants from Medtronic and Boston Scientific as well as personal fees from Medtronic, Abbott, Boston Scientifc, UCB, Merz, Allergan, TEVA, Novartis, Abbvie, Grünenthal and Newronika. GD has received lecture fees from Boston Scientific and has been serving as a consultant for Boston Scientific. He received royalties from Thieme publishers. He is a government employee and receives through his institution funding for his research from the German Research Council, the German Ministery of Education and Research and Medtronic. JVe reports grants and consultancies from Abbott and Boston Scientific over the last 12 months. CWI reports honoraria from Allergan Inc., Merz Pharmaceutical and Ipsen Pharm and travel grants from Desitin over the last 12 months. AS has been serving as a consultant for Medtronic Inc., Boston Scientific, St. Jude Medical, Grünenthal and has received lecture fees from Abbvie, Boston Scientific, St. Jude Medical, Medtronic Inc., UCB, MEDA Pharma, Teva Pharma, and GlaxoSmithKline. AS is a government employee and receives through his institution funding for his research from the German Research Council, the German Ministery of Education and Health, and the Gossweiler Foundation. JM reports honoraria from Merz Pharmaceutical over the last 12 months. AKü reports consultancies for Boston Scientific and Abbott. AKu reports honoraria from Zamson and Merz DF, JVH, MN and WE report no financial disclosure over the last 12 months.