title: Increased plasma visfatin concentration is a marker of an atherogenic metabolic profile.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Visfatin is associated with atherosclerosis-related diseases. We assessed in non-diabetic individuals the association of plasma visfatin levels with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and the atherosclerosis-related metabolic variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  When study population (n = 179, age 49 ± 11 years) was divided according to visfatin tertiles, the 10-year CVD Framingham risk scores were significantly increased in the top visfatin tertile. We observed a positive association between visfatin tertiles with waist circumference and blood pressure, as well as with total cholesterol and triglyceride levels, but not with apolipoprotein C-III, fibrinogen or pre-beta1 high density lipoprotein (HDL). The percentage of large HDL subclasses was significantly lower and the percentage of small HDL subclasses over the HDL-C concentration was significantly higher in the top visfatin tertile compared with the other tertiles. The atherogenic small dense low density lipoprotein subclasses (sdLDL-C) were significantly increased in the top visfatin tertile compared with the lower tertiles. High sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) concentration was significantly increased in the top visfatin tertile compared with the lower tertiles. Although age and sex distribution did not differ between visfatin tertiles, the simultaneous adjustment for these parameters attenuated the significance of the differences observed in sdLDL-C and hsCRP levels. Similarly, after adjustment for hsCRP or waist circumference, only triglycerides and blood pressure levels, as well as the distribution of HDL subclasses, remained significantly different between visfatin tertiles.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results support a role for visfatin in the detection of subjects with many metabolic abnormalities, which result in increased CVD risk.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece.
authors.forename: T D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Filippatos
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tsimihodimos
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Derdemezis
authors.forename: I F
authors.initials: IF
authors.lastname: Gazi
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Saougos
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Mikhailidis
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Tselepis
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Elisaf
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL / Q000097:blood; D008078:Cholesterol, LDL / Q000097:blood; D016207:Cytokines / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D054409:Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase / Q000097:blood*; D011379:Prognosis; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood; D015854:Up-Regulation; D055105:Waist Circumference
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL; D008078:Cholesterol, LDL; D016207:Cytokines; D014280:Triglycerides; D002097:C-Reactive Protein; D054409:Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase; C085455:nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase, human