TNF and diabetes mellitus: Compared with the surviving patients, the deceased patients were significantly older (64.5 ± 8.3 vs. 57.7 ± 10.2 years, p < 0.001) and had a higher frequency of diabetes (44% vs. 18%, p = 0.002), higher levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α (5.0 ± 1.8 vs. 4.0 ± 1.6 pg/mL, p = 0.001) and high-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) (0.47 ± 0.65 vs. 0.18 ± 0.29 mg/dL, p = 0.006), and higher aortic calcification scores (42.9 ± 23.0 vs. 29.9 ± 23.8, p = 0.004).