The conservation of the GATA family between Arabidopsis and rice indicates that orthologs for GNC and CGA1 genes perform BYL719 similar roles in crop plants. Modulation of their expression could potentially allow for increased productivity under reduced nitrogen fertilizer conditions. Application of nitrogen fertilizer is costly both environmentally and economically; therefore any improvement that leads to increased nitrogen use efficiency could have a significant impact. All participants were subject to a standardized interview and examined in a standardized clinical examination. Body weight and size, waist and hip circumference, blood pressure and heart rate were measured on both arms in the standing position first. Thereafter, the examination was continued in the supine position. Blood pressure and heart rate measured in supine position were usually obtained at the end of the examination, together with the determination of the ankle brachial index that was assessed using bedside doppler ultrasound. Patients with incompressible leg arteries had an ABI of more than 1.5. These excessively high indexes that were found in 13 patients were excluded from the dataset. On average, patients with symptomatic arteriosclerosis were older, and most conventional risk factors were significantly more common in this group. Smoking and a positive family history of cardiovascular events were the most prevalent risk factors in both patient groups. Among vulnerable patients with symptomatic arteriosclerosis, 60% had coronary heart disease, 26% had cerebrovascular disease, 27% peripheral arterial occlusive disease, 7% aortic and 11% renal arteriosclerosis. For 27 patients, more than one vascular bed was affected by the disease. These rates of organ involvement by arteriosclerosis were similar to findings obtained in other population-based surveys and provide evidence for an ABT-199 Bcl-2 inhibitor unbiased patient selection. The majority of the 25 variables that were found to be different between vulnerable patients and patients free of cardiovascular events was obtained in the bedside examination: 6 from the interview and 11 from the clinical exam. Only 5 were results from laboratory tests and 3 from chest X-ray or electrocardiogram. Most of the 25 variables which were significantly different in this systematic and comprehensive comparison of clinical data from symptomatic and asymptomatic patients reflect important and well-known clinical signs of arteriosclerosis or associated conditions: the anthropometric data reveal abdominal obesity, the elevated systolic blood pressure is caused by reduced wall compliance and the reduced ankle brachial index is a consequence of obstructed arteries.