Circulating adiponectin and carotid intima-media thickness: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
BACKGROUND
Adiponectin (APN) is an adipokine with insulin-sensitizing, anti-inflammatory, and vasculoprotective properties. Hypoadiponectinemia has been linked with disease states, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) is a strong and independent predictor of both coronary and cerebrovascular events, and has been used as a surrogate marker of subclinical atherosclerosis. The aim of this report is to systematically review the evidence on the relationship between APN and cIMT in a wide range of individuals.


METHODS
Medline, Embase, Biosis, Scopus, Web of Science, and Pubmed were searched for published studies and conference abstracts. The "sign test" and "vote count" methods were used to estimate the direction and significance of the relationship between APN and cIMT. The quality of the eligible studies was evaluated using an adapted version of the New Castle Ottawa quality assessment scale.


RESULTS
Fifty-five articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria, comprised of only cross-sectional studies, including healthy subjects, general population, and individuals with metabolic, inflammatory, or other chronic diseases. Most associations between APN and cIMT followed a negative direction in the healthier and general populations, and also in cohorts with metabolic disorders and other chronic diseases, but not in those with inflammatory diseases (sign test). These associations were generally found to be weak or non-significant among all cohort groups studied (vote count).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results are suggestive but not conclusive for an inverse association between APN levels and cIMT in diseased and non-diseased populations.
Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Electronic address: karina.gasbarrino@mail.mcgill.ca.
Karina
K
Gasbarrino
Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Electronic address: jessica.gorgui@gmail.com.
Jessica
J
Gorgui
Medical Library, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Electronic address: benedicte.nauche@muhc.mcgill.ca.
Bénédicte
B
Nauche
Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Electronic address: robert.cote@mcgill.ca.
Robert
R
Côté
Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Electronic address: stella.daskalopoulou@mcgill.ca.
Stella S
SS
Daskalopoulou
D052242:Adiponectin / Q000097:blood*; D059168:Carotid Intima-Media Thickness; D006801:Humans; D008659:Metabolic Diseases / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012307:Risk Factors
D052242:Adiponectin
Adiponectin; Carotid intima-media thickness; Healthy and general population; Inflammatory and chronic diseases; Metabolic disorders