Table 2.

Demographics and clinical characteristics of the studied population.

Characteristics	Controls n.18	Cases n.18
Age (years)	41.4 ± 14.42 (range 24–71)	52.1± 13.04 (range 20–61)*
Gender (male/female)	M 6 + F 12	M 11 + F 7
Type 2 Diabetes (*)	0/18	1/18
Arterial Hypertension (**)	1/18	3/18
Smokers (more than 5 cigarettes/day)	1/18	4/18

*Diagnosis of type 2 diabetes: fasting plasma glucose >126 mg/dl (7.0 mmol/l); according to American Diabetes Association Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes, 2017 (American Diabetes Association, 2017) and (**) diagnosis of arterial hypertension: >140/90 mmHg, according to the Task Force for the Management of Arterial Hypertension of the European Society of Hypertension and the European Society of Cardiology (Mancia et al., 2013). Values are mean ± SD for n = 18 subjects/group.

*p < 0.05, t-test was used for the analysis.