LEP and Hypertension: We next examined the independent influence of prednisolone or serum adipokines (resistin, leptin, and HMW-adiponectin) on the progression of premature atherosclerosis in our patients with systemic autoimmune diseases by multiple regression analyses adjusted for patient characteristics (gender, age, and BMI), traditional risk factors (hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking status, and serum levels of HDL-chol, triglycerides (TG) and CRP), and a history of CVD.