Research Article Rheumatoid Arthritis Impacts on the Independent Relationships between Circulating Adiponectin Concentrations and Cardiovascular Metabolic Risk

Copyright © 2013 Patrick H. Dessein et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Adiponectin and leptin are likely involved in the pathophysiology of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and therefore potential new therapeutic targets. Adiponectin inhibition could be expected to enhance cardiovascular metabolic risk. However, it is unknown whether RA changes the influence of adipokines on cardiovascular metabolic risk. We determined whether RA impacts on the independent relationships of circulating leptin and adiponectin concentrations with cardiovascular risk factors and carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) in 277 black African subjects from a developing population; 119 had RA. RA impacted on the relationships of adiponectin concentrations with lipid concentrations and blood pressure, independent of confounders including adiposity (interactio