Aim of the study was to elucidate possible role of adiponectin in development of clinico-metabolic derangements in metabolic syndrome (MS). We examined 35 men and 45 women (mean age 58.0+/-8.8 years). Adiponectin level was significantly lower (p<0.01) in patients with MS (5.8+/-4.6) compared with subjects without MS (9.2+/-5.3 mkg/ml). Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), index of insulin resistance , levels of glucose, insulin, free fatty acids (FFA), triglycerides (TG) were lower in 3rd tertile of distribution of adiponectin blood content compared with 1st tertile. Significant negative correlations were found between adiponectin content and BMI (r=-0.36), WC (r=-0.34), index (r=-0.31), level of diastolic arterial pressure (r=-0.34), concentrations of glucose (r=-0.24), insulin (r=-0.26), FFA (r=-0.24), TG (r=-0.45), uric acid (r=-0.29). Correlation between adiponectin and level of high density lipoprotein cholesterol was positive (I=0.26). However after adjustment for MI, sex, and age adiponectin content correlated significantly only with concentration of TG (r=-0.27) and diastolic arterial pressure (r=-0.26). Regression analysis revealed independent from factors presented above role of adiponectin in determination of blood level of TG (beta=-0.30, p=0.02).