To evaluate whether plasma high molecular weight (HMW) adiponectin provides prognostic information in addition to that obtained from clinical, haemodynamic, and biochemical variables previously known to be associated with a high mortality in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients.

We measured the plasma levels of total and HMW adiponectin, atrial natriuretic peptide, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), and N-terminal-proBNP (NT-proBNP), and haemodynamic parameters in 449 consecutive CHF patients. Based on body mass index (BMI), patients were classified into three groups: low (<21 kg/m², n = 133), normal (21–25 kg/m², n = 205), and high (>25 kg/m², n = 111). After adjustment for clinical variables associated with CHF including haemodynamics, plasma total adiponectin level was an independent prognostic predictor but HMW adiponectin was not in the overall patient group. On subgroup analyses, in patients with abnormal BMI, plasma total adiponectin level was not an independent prognostic predictor, but in patients with normal BMI, plasma levels of log NT-proBNP (P = 0.017) and log total adiponectin (P = 0.003) were independent prognostic predictors.

These findings indicate that total adiponectin is more useful for assessing mortality risk than HMW adiponectin and a high plasma total adiponectin is an independent prognostic predictor especially in CHF patients with normal BMI.