Table 2.

Incidence of well-established and novel risk factors for CVD and diabetes in PCOS

Risk factors for CVD and diabetes in PCOS	Incidence/ concentration in PCOS	Strength of evidence	Refs.
Dyslipidemia	Increased	++	6, 22, 38, 110, 112, 113, 282–288
Hypertension	Increased	+/−	22, 112, 113, 124, 283
Insulin resistance	Increased	++	9, 13, 17, 18, 289, 290
Pancreatic β-cell secretory dysfunction	Increased	++	44, 45
Obesity	Increased	++	14, 18, 37, 46, 47, 289, 290
NAFLD	Increased	++	40, 185, 196
Adipokines and macrophage derived factors
Adiponectin	Reduced	+	65
Resistin	Increased	+/−	91
Vaspin	Increased	+	53
Visfatin	Increased	+	76–78
Chemerin	Increased	+	85
Inflammation markers
TNF-α	Increased	++	94, 95
IL-6	Increased	++	99, 291
IL-18	Increased	+	101
CRP	Increased	++	103, 141
Endothelial/vascular function
Endothelial/vascular dysfunction	Increased	++	35, 36, 122, 133, 139, 292–301
Plasma PAI-1 activity	Increased	++	302–304
Endothelin-1	Increased	++	133
Vascular endothelial growth factor	Increased	++	305
ADMA	Increased	++	148–150
Carotid IMT	Increased	++	35, 129, 306, 307
Coronary artery and aortic calcification	Increased	++	132, 307
Left ventricular mass index	Increased	++	132, 136, 307
Tissue plasminogen activator	Increased	++	142
Heart rate recovery	Slower	++	151, 153

Strength of evidence to link each to PCOS is shown with +, ++, or +/− signs.