REN and atherosclerosis: The second one is renin, which was the strongest correlate of CAD in our cohort and whose link with cardiovascular events has a firm pathological basis and is supported by growing clinical evidence: renin is the activator of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, whose pharmacological inhibition reduces morbidity and mortality of patients with CAD (31), and high levels of renin are associated with atherosclerosis, hypertensive cardiomyopathy, and impaired left ventricular function (32).