title: Low serum adiponectin levels in childhood and adolescence predict increased intima-media thickness in adulthood. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.
abstract: Low adiponectin levels may predict the development of atherosclerosis. We examined the association of childhood adiponectin with preclinical carotid atherosclerosis that is defined as plaque and/or high (≥95th percentile) intima-media thickness (IMT) at the carotid bifurcation in adulthood.
  
  
  
  The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study is a cohort study on cardiovascular risk factors. We used risk factor data from the baseline study (1980) and ultrasound findings from the follow-ups (2001 and 2007). The study population included 1708 participants, aged 3-18 years at baseline.
  
  
  
  In multivariate analysis, childhood adiponectin was inversely associated with preclinical carotid atherosclerosis: odds ratio 0.68, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.53-0.86, p = .001, for 1-SD increase in childhood adiponectin after adjusting for childhood non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, body mass index, and blood pressure. When examining the incremental predictive ability, we observed that compared to an approach utilizing only conventional risk factors, the model additionally including adiponectin levels improved c-statistics area under curve from 0.733 (95% Cl 0.694-0.771) to 0.748 (95% Cl 0.710-0.786), p = .02.
  
  
  
  Childhood adiponectin levels improve the prediction of carotid atherosclerosis in adulthood over conventional risk factors. This supports the idea that low adiponectin levels may have a role in the development of preclinical atherosclerosis. Key messages Childhood adiponectin levels improve the prediction of increased carotid intima-media thickness in adulthood over conventional cardiovascular risk factors. These results suggest that adiponectin levels measured in childhood may have a role in the atherosclerotic process.
authors.affiliation: a Research Centre of Applied and Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Turku , Turku , Finland.|b Department of Pediatrics , University of Turku and Turku University Hospital , Turku , Finland.
authors.forename: Liisa A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Saarikoski
authors.affiliation: c Department of Medicine , University of Turku and Division of Medicine, Turku University Hospital , Turku , Finland.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Juonala
authors.affiliation: d Department of Pharmacology, Drug Development and Therapeutics , University of Turku, and Unit of Clinical Pharmacology, Turku University Hospital , Turku , Finland.
authors.forename: Risto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Huupponen
authors.affiliation: c Department of Medicine , University of Turku and Division of Medicine, Turku University Hospital , Turku , Finland.
authors.forename: Jorma S A
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Viikari
authors.affiliation: e Department of Clinical Chemistry , Fimlab Laboratories and School of Medicine, University of Tampere , Tampere , Finland.
authors.forename: Terho
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lehtimäki
authors.affiliation: f Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Hospital for Children and Adolescents and Department of Pediatrics , University of Helsinki , Helsinki , Finland.
authors.forename: Eero
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jokinen
authors.affiliation: g Department of Pediatrics , University of Tampere and Tampere University Hospital , Tampere , Finland.
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hutri-Kähönen
authors.affiliation: h Department of Pediatrics , Vaasa Central Hospital , Vaasa , Finland.|i Department of Pediatrics , University of Oulu , Oulu , Finland.
authors.forename: Leena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Taittonen
authors.affiliation: j Department of Clinical Physiology , University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital , Kuopio , Finland.
authors.forename: Tomi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Laitinen
authors.affiliation: a Research Centre of Applied and Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Turku , Turku , Finland.|k Department of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine , Turku University Hospital , Turku , Finland.
authors.forename: Olli T
authors.initials: OT
authors.lastname: Raitakari
mesh_terms: D052242:Adiponectin / Q000097:blood*; D000293:Adolescent; D001794:Blood Pressure; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D059168:Carotid Intima-Media Thickness; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008074:Lipoproteins / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D052242:Adiponectin; D008074:Lipoproteins
keywords: Adiponectin; cardiovascular disease; epidemiology; intima-media thickness; risk factors