Footnotes

• Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

• Competing interests ZH reports receiving lecture fees from Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, and Roche Diagnostics; consulting fees from Merck Sharp & Dohme, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, and Roche Diagnostics. LW: institutional research grants, consultancy and lecture fees, and travel support from AstraZeneca, BMS and Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, and GlaxoSmithKline; honoraria from GlaxoSmithKline; institutional research grant from Merck & Co. and Roche; consultancy fees from Abbot; holds two patents involving GDF-15.

• Patient consent Not required.

• Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.