Fasting serum adiponectin level inversely correlates with metabolic syndrome in peritoneal dialysis patients

Metabolic syndrome is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease and predicts hospitalization in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. An inverse association between circulating adiponectin and metabolic syndrome has been observed in humans. However, no data are available on the relationship between metabolic syndrome and serum adiponectin levels in PD patients.

Fasting blood samples were obtained from 47 PD patients and 47 subjects in an outpatient department were enrolled as a control group. Metabolic syndrome and its components were defined using diagnostic criteria from the International Diabetes Federation. Adiponectin levels were measured using a commercial enzyme immunoassay kit.

Twenty-seven of 47 PD patients (57.5%) had metabolic syndrome. PD patients had lower serum albumin (p < 0.001) and higher serum adiponectin levels (p = 0.016), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (p = 0.008), creatinine (p < 0.001) and metabolic syndrome (p < 0.001) than controls. The fasting adiponectin level inversely correlated with the metabolic syndrome in these PD patients (p = 0.006). Univariate linear regression analysis showed that the waist circumference (r = -0.304; p = 0.038), body mass index (r = -0.347; p = 0.017), body fat mass (r = -0.305; p = 0.037), white blood count (r = -0.631; p < 0.001), triglyceride (TG; r = -0.526; p < 0.001), and fasting glucose (r = -0.394; p = 0.006) were negatively correlated with the fasting serum adiponectin levels, while high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (r = 0.443; p = 0.002) was positively correlated with the fasting serum adiponectin levels among the PD patients. Multivariate forward stepwise linear regression analysis of the significant variables showed that white blood count (R(2) change = 0.398, p < 0.001), and TG (R(2) change = 0.118, p = 0.002) were the independent predictors of fasting serum adiponectin levels and explained 51.6% of variance.

We observed that PD patients had higher metabolic syndrome than the general population and an inverse association was found between the circulating fasting adiponectin level and metabolic syndrome in PD patients. White blood count and TG were independent predictors of the serum adiponectin level among PD patients.