CRP and diabetes mellitus: In CAD, levels of GDF-15 are independently correlated with age, diabetes, high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and natriuretic peptides in the AtheroGene study [35], which is in line with our finding of a significant correlation between GDF-15 and NT-proBNP in our CAD cohort (r = 0.727, p < 0.001).