Association of Serum Adiponectin with Intima Media Thickness of Dorsalis Pedis Artery and Macroangiopathy in Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of the serum adiponectin level with the intima media thickness of the dorsalis pedis artery (D-IMT) and macroangiopathy in type 2 diabetes (T2DM). METHODS: We recruited 173 patients with T2DM, of whom 83 had macroangiopathy (MA group) and 90 did not have macroangiopathy (NM group), and 40 normal control subjects (NC group). We measured D-IMT using color B-mode Doppler ultrasonography. Serum adiponectin, blood glucose, lipids, and other clinical characteristics were analyzed. Participants were divided into three subgroups according to serum adiponectin level (high, moderate, and low). RESULTS: Compared with the NM and NC groups, serum adiponectin levels were significantly decreased in the MA group after adjusting for sex and body mass index. Compared with the NM and NC groups, D-IMT was significantly increased in the MA group. Compared with the moderate- and high-adiponectin subgroups, D-IMT was significantly increased in the low-adiponectin subgroup. The prevalence of diabetic macroangiopathy increased gradually with decreasing adiponectin levels. After controlling for age, sex, smoking, and alcohol drinking, partial correlation analysis showed that adiponectin was negatively correlated with D-IMT. Elevated serum adiponectin was independently associated with a decreased risk for diabetic macroangiopathy by logistic regression analysis. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that adiponectin was an independent factor of D-IMT. In receiver operating characteristic analyses, the area under the curve for traditional risk factors plus adiponectin for prediction of macroangiopathy was 0.984, while that of traditional risk factors alone was 0.972. CONCLUSIONS: Adiponectin is lower in patients with T2DM with macroangiopathy. We suggest that D-IMT could represent a noninvasive indicator of diabetic macroangiopathy. Decrease of adiponectin as an independent risk factor for both macroangiopathy and D-IMT among Chinese patients with T2DM suggests that adiponectin might have clinical utility in the prediction of diabetic macroangiopathy. This clinical trial is registered in the “Chinese Clinical Trial Registry.” The registration number is ChiCTR-ROC-17011731.