Factors contributing to the risk of cardiovascular disease reflected by plasma adiponectin: data from the coronary risk factors for atherosclerosis in women (CORA) study.

OBJECTIVE: An inverse association of adiponectin with coronary heart disease (CHD) has been reported, but the results are inconsistent. We used data from the CORA study to investigate into plasma concentrations of adiponectin and factors that may mediate the link to incident CHD. DESIGN: The CORA study is a population-based case-control study on 200 women with incident CHD and 255 age-matched controls. RESULTS: Plasma concentrations of adiponectin were significantly lower in women with CHD (por=25 kg/m(2) (por=0.85), prevalent diabetes or insulin resistance (HOMA-IR >or=3.8), or low HDL-cholesterol (