Letter Visfatin: A Risk Marker for a Plethora of Diseases in Adults and Infants Despina D. Briana, MD, PhD 1 and Ariadne Malamitsi-Puchner, MD, PhD 1 In their meta-analysis, Yu et al showed that increased periph- eral blood visfatin concentrations may be a risk marker for coronary artery disease (CAD). 1 Overall, peripheral blood vis- fatin concentrations were higher in patients with CAD com- pared to controls (weighted mean difference: 4.72 ng/mL; 95% confidence interval: 2.97-6.47; P < .001). 1 Increased blood visfatin concentrations have been impli- cated in several diseases, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, 2 osteoarthritis, 3 rheumatoid arthritis, 4 and gastric cancer. 5 Besides adult diseases, visfatin levels are implicated in fetal growth and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). 6,7 Patholo- gic conditions in pregnancy leading to IUGR could be respon- sible for elevated maternal visfatin levels. 7 Furthermore, higher visfatin levels in neonates with IUGR may serve as an early prognostic marker for later development of insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes mellitus. 7 The identification of reliable risk markers able to predict the development of diseases is essential both in adults and infants/ neonates. Monitoring such markers may be used as a guide to selecting appropriate drugs as well as to predict the course/ prognosis of a disease. 8 References 1. Yu F, Li J, Huang Q, Cai H. Increased peripheral blood visfatin concentrations may be a risk marker of coronary artery disease: a meta-analysis of observational studies. Angiology. 2018;69(9): 825-34. 2. Shaker O, El-Shehaby A, Zakaria A, et al. Plasma visfatin and retinol binding protein-4 levels in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and their relationship to adiposity and fatty liver. Clin Biochem. 2011;44(17-18):1457-63. 3. Fioravanti A, Cheleschi S, De Palma A, et al. Can adipokines serum levels be used as biomarkers of hand osteoarthritis? Biomarkers. 2018;23(3):265-70. 4. Lee YH, Bae SC. Circulating adiponectin and visfatin levels in rheumatoid arthritis and their correlation with disease activity: a meta-analysis. Int J Rheum Dis. 2018;21(3):664-72. 5. Lu GW, Wang QJ, Xia MM, Qian J. Elevated plasma visfatin levels correlate with poor prognosis of gastric cancer patients. Peptides. 2014;58:60-4. 6. Briana DD, Boutsikou M, Gourgiotis D, et al. Role of visfatin, insulin-like growth factor-I and insulin in fetal growth. J Perinat Med. 2007;35(4):326-9. 7. Malamitsi-Puchner A, Briana DD, Boutsikou M, Kouskouni E, Hassiakos D, Gourgiotis D. Perinatal circulating visfatin levels in intrauterine growth restriction. Pediatrics. 2007;119(6): e1314-8. 8. Athyros VG, Kakafika AI, Karagiannis A, Mikhailidis DP. Do we need to consider inflammatory markers when we treat ather- osclerotic disease? Atherosclerosis. 2008;200(1):1-12. 1 Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece Corresponding Author: Despina D. Briana, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 24, Al. Papagou Str., GR-14122, N. Irakleio, Athens, Greece. Emails: brianadespina@yahoo.com, dbriana@med.uoa.gr Angiology 2019, Vol. 70(10) 987 ª The Author(s) 2018 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0003319718807616 journals.sagepub.com/home/ang