CST3 and Hypertension: Increased cystatin C levels are associated with carotid IMT in a multi-ethnic study on atherosclerosis [24], in the general population [23], in the health check-up population [20], in postmenopausal women [21], in metabolic syndrome patients [19], in patients with hypertension [16, 17, 25], and in patients with type 2 diabetes [26, 41].