A clinic was established in a quiet but easily accessible sector of Lanusei. Each subject came to the clinic before breakfast, signed consent forms, and gave a sample of fasting blood. Later in the day, each subject returned for a full 2-h evaluation, including blood pressure and anthropometric measurements, cardiovascular assessments and personality testing, and a medical history interview. Two teams of six staff, all Sardinian, worked in parallel so that up to 60 subjects could be examined each week. Each team included: a physician, responsible for the medical history and physical examination; another physician and a technician, responsible for measurements of arterial stiffness and thickness; a tester for the psychological inventory; and, finally, a phlebotomist and a technician responsible for collecting and fractionating blood. Additional backup staff helped in data handling and transfer.
