In a fully adjusted multivariate model containing age, sex, BMI, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, family history of CAD, LDL-C, HDL-C, triglycerides, hsCRP, medication and PAT volume, adiponectin levels were predictive of coronary atherosclerotic plaque burden, i.e. an increase in adiponectin levels by 27.8 μg/ml is associated with the reduction of one atherosclerotic plaque (estimate: −0.036, 95%CI: −0.052 to −0.020, p<0.0001) (Table 3). Here, ADIPOQ is linked to diabetes mellitus.