IL6 and diabetes mellitus: In the DM subgroup, brachial-ankle PWV was directly correlated with inflammatory markers (TNF alpha p = 0.012, r = 0.46; IL-6 p = 0.034, r = 0.40), age (p < 0.001, r = 0.39) and serum phosphorus (p = 0.012, r = 0.39), but not with the eGFR (Table 4).