Background: Recently, considerable interest has been focused on the positive relationship between inflammation and the metabolic syndrome (MS). Therefore, we investigated whether the baseline plasma levels of the high-sensitivity C-reactive protein could be associated with future risk for MS in apparently healthy Koreans.
Methods: A total of 1132 subjects (767 men, 365 women with a mean age of 49 years), who underwent health examination at this hospital in both 2002 and 2005 were enrolled. The criteria for metabolic syndrome followed that of NCEP-ATP III guideline except waist circumference. Instead, BMI (>/=25 kg/m(2)) was used for the measurement for obesity.
Results and conclusions: The relative risks of future MS in the highest quartile of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein at baseline were 2.4 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3-4.2) as compared to the subjects in the lowest quartile. Positive associations persisted after adjustment for age, sex and smoking; multivariate relative risks for the highest vs lowest quartiles were 2.3 (95% CI, 1.3-4.1; P for trend=0.005). This retrospective study suggests that elevated levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein could be associated with incident MS.