6 chronic kidney disease,” American Journal of Hypertension, vol. 23, no. 9, pp. 967–973, 2010. [13] H. Tomiyama, M. Yamazaki, Y. Sagawa et al., “Synergistic eﬀect of smoking and blood pressure on augmentation index in men, but not in women,” Hypertension Research, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 122–126, 2009. [14] H. Tomiyama and A. Yamashina, “Non-invasive vascular func- tion tests: their pathophysiological background and clinical application,” Circulation Journal, vol. 74, no. 1, pp. 24–33, 2010. [15] H. Tomiyama, H. Tanaka, H. Hashimoto et al., “Arterial stiﬀness and declines in individuals with normal renal func- tion/early chronic kidney disease,” Atherosclerosis, vol. 212, no. 1, pp. 345–350, 2010. [16] M. Munakata, Y. Miura, and K. Yoshinaga, “Higher brachial- ankle pulse wave velocity as an independent risk factor for future microalbuminuria in patients with essential hyperten- sion: the J-TOPP study,” Journal of Hypertension, vol. 27, no. 7, pp. 1466–1471, 2009. [17] M. L. Ford, L. A. Tomlinson, T. P. E. Chapman, C. Rajkumar, and S. G. Holt, “Aortic stiﬀness is independently associated with rate of renal function decline in chronic kidney disease stages 3 and 4,” Hypertension, vol. 55, no. 5, pp. 1110–1115, 2010. [18] M. F. O’Rourke and M. E. Safar, “Relationship between aortic stiﬀening and microvascular disease in brain and kidney: cause and logic of therapy,” Hypertension, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 200–204, 2005. [19] H. Tanaka, M. Munakata, Y. Kawano et al., “Comparison between carotid-femoral and brachial-ankle pulse wave veloc- ity as measures of arterial stiﬀness,” Journal of Hypertension, vol. 27, no. 10, pp. 2022–2027, 2009. International Journal of Nephrology