Of the 22 biomarkers and the cardiac measures (including LVEDD, LAID, LVWT, LVEF, GLS, and E/é) that were correlated with the risk of HF (Additional file 1: Table S7), CRP, GDF15, NT-proBNP, IGFBP2, LVEDD, LVWT, and GLS were detected to have a mediation effect for the association between EAT thickness and HF risk (Fig. 3 and Additional file 1: Table S8). Here, CRP is linked to hydrops fetalis.