Chemerin and Arterial Stiffness in the Brisighella Heart Study: A Residual-Based Discordance Analysis

Chemerin is a multifunctional adipokine involved in metabolic regulation, inflammation, and vascular homeostasis, but its relationship with arterial stiffness remains uncertain. We investigated the association between circulating chemerin and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) and explored individual chemerin-PWV discordance in participants from the Brisighella Heart Study (n = 1304). Multivariable linear regression was adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, mean arterial pressure, resting heart rate, current smoking, and estimated glomerular filtration rate. Chemerin was correlated with cfPWV in unadjusted analysis (Spearman's ρ = 0.073; p = 0.009). After adjustment, each one-standard-deviation increase in chemerin was associated with a nonsignificant 0.093 m/s higher cfPWV (95% confidence interval, -0.026 to 0.212; p = 0.126). Residual-based classification identified 132 participants with higher-than-expected chemerin and lower-than-expected cfPWV and 151 with higher-than-expected values of both measures. No investigated factor remained associated with membership in the former group after false-discovery-rate correction. Cross-fitting showed 95.6% agreement in phenotype classification. Circulating chemerin was not independently associated with central arterial stiffness, while residual analysis revealed stable but clinically unvalidated patterns of chemerin-cfPWV discordance.