Adiponectin level in hypertension

Introduction: Adiponectin is a hormone, secreted mainly by adipocytes. Despite accumulating experimental evidence on the etiological role of adiponectin in hypertension (HTN), data on plasma adiponectin level and HTN in humans are inconsistent and dose–response relationship has not been established. Aim: To estimate and evaluate the level of adiponectin in patients with different stages of HTN and evaluate the relationship between adiponectin level in hypertensive patients in the presence or absence of metabolic syndrome. Patients and methods: This work was carried out at the Clinical Pathology and Cardiology Departments at Assiut University Hospital. It included two groups of individuals: 60 patients with primary HTN (the patient group) and 20 age‑matched and sex‑matched apparently healthy individuals (the control group). Results: Plasma adiponectin level was significantly lower in patients with HTN in comparison to the control group. Adiponectin levels in patients with stage 2 HTN was statistically insignificantly higher than those with stage 1 HTN and the adiponectin level was statistically insignificantly higher in stage 1 hypertensive patients compared with prehypertensive patients. Adiponectin level was significantly lower in male hypertensive patients with metabolic syndrome in comparison to male hypertensive patients without metabolic syndrome. The predictive value of adiponectin for the occurrence of HTN was 2.63 ng/ml, with 90% sensitivity and 35% specificity; the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.65 and P value of 0.03. Conclusion: The low level of plasma adiponectin is an independent predictive factor for HTN even with the presence or absence of metabolic syndrome.