Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) determination in the postmenopausal women with metabolic syndrome (MetS) in a comparative analysis with biomarkers such as C-reactive protein (CRP), adiponectin, leptin and leptin-to-adiponectin ratio (L/A).
Material & methods: 135 postmenopausal women with MetS and 153 without MetS were subjected to examinations.
Results: The increase in the probability of MetS, when the value of the marker concentration decreased or increased by 1 standard deviation, was two times higher for FSH-based models than for models including CRP and leptin, and was similar to models including adiponectin and L/A. The areas under the ROC curves were 0.78 for FSH, 0.68 for CRP, 0.72 for leptin, 0.76 for adiponectin and 0.80 for L/A.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that the FSH concentration assesses the probability of MetS similarly to L/A or adiponectin and better than CRP or leptin in postmenopausal women.
Keywords: C-reactive protein; adiponectin; follicle-stimulating hormone; leptin; menopause; metabolic syndrome.