GDF15 and arteriosclerosis: Notably, GDF15, specifically in patients with OSA, exhibited a higher AUC of 0.85 [0.77–0.94] compared to AOPP (AUC = 0.67 [0.55–0.79]) or IL-6 (AUC = 0.64 [0.52–0.76]) in detecting arteriosclerosis, suggesting that GDF15 had a superior performance as a serum biomarker for identifying arteriosclerosis compared to the other mentioned biomarkers.