Hypoadiponectinemia, cardiometabolic comorbidities and left ventricular hypertrophy

This study was designed to evaluate the prevalence of cardiometabolic comorbidities and the changes in left ventricular geometry and function in 135 subjects subgrouped according to low or normal total adiponectin plasma (ADPN) levels. Left ventricular (LV) internal diameter/height, total LV mass (LVM) and LVM index (LVMI), relative wall thickness (RWT), LV ejection fraction by echocardiography and diastolic parameters by pulsed-wave Doppler were calculated. Body mass index (BMI) (p < 0.0001), waist-to-hip ratio (p < 0.03), triglycerides (p < 0,001), prevalence of obesity (p < 0.005), visceral obesity (p < 0.003), left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) (p < 0.001), metabolic syndrome (p < 0.0003) and coronary artery disease (CAD) (p < 0.003) were significantly increased and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (p < 0.001) was significantly reduced in hypo-ADPN than normal-ADPN subjects. LVM, LVMI, interventricular septum thickness and RWT were significantly (p < 0.0001) higher and left ventricular ejection fraction was significantly (p < 0.0002) lower in hypo-ADPN than normal-ADPN patients. LVMI correlated directly with BMI (p < 0.001), mean blood pressure (p < 0.001), metabolic syndrome (MetS) (p < 0.001) and inversely with ADPN (p < 0.0001). The prevalence of LVH (p < 0.001) and CAD (p < 0.01) was higher in subjects with normal-ADPN and MetS, while the presence of MetS did not change this finding in hypo ADPN group. Both models of regression analysis indicated that ADPN and BMI resulted independently associated with LVMI. In conclusion, our data seem to indicate that hypoadiponectinemia might be associated with an increased prevalence both of clinical comorbidities and increased LVMI. In this subset of subjects, ADPN and BMI, more than MetS, are able to explain cardiac damage. Accordingly, ADPN might become a new target in the management of cardiometabolic risk.