The roles of triglyceride/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio and uric acid as predisposing factors for metabolic syndrome in healthy children

Maria Efthymia Katsa; Anastasios Ioannidis; Athanasios Sachlas; Ioannis Dimopoulos; Stylianos Chatzipanagiotou; Andrea Paola Rojas Gil

doi:10.6065/apem.2019.24.3.172

The roles of triglyceride/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio and uric acid as predisposing factors for metabolic syndrome in healthy children

Ann Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2019 Sep;24(3):172-179. doi: 10.6065/apem.2019.24.3.172. Epub 2019 Sep 30.

Authors

Maria Efthymia Katsa¹, Anastasios Ioannidis¹, Athanasios Sachlas², Ioannis Dimopoulos³, Stylianos Chatzipanagiotou⁴, Andrea Paola Rojas Gil¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Peloponnese, Tripolis, Greece.
² Department of Statistics and Insurance Science, Faculty of Finance and Statistics, University of Piraeus, Athens, Greece.
³ School of Management, University of Peloponnese, Kalamata, Greece.
⁴ Department of Biopathology and Clinical Microbiology, Aeginition Hospital, Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece.

Abstract

Purpose: To estimate the roles of triglyceride/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG/HDL) ratio and uric acid in predisposition for metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components in healthy children.

Methods: Anthropometric and biochemical analyses were performed on 110 children, aged 5 to 12 years, from the Greek county of Laconia. The children were studied as a whole population and in separate groups according to age and predisposition to MetS after taking into consideration International Diabetes Federation criteria, body mass index, and lipid profile.

Results: Seventeen percent of children exhibited predisposition to MetS, while 39.1% had TG/HDL ratio >1, and 3.64% had high level of uric acid. According to a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, the relative probability for MetS predisposition sextupled when TG/HDL ratio was ≥1 (odds ratio [OR], 5.986; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.968-18.205). Children in the total population and those aged < 9 years had a greater probability for increased low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (OR, 3.614; 95% CI, 1.561-8.365) when TG/HDL ratio was ≥ 1. The TG/HDL ratio was positively correlated with body mass index (BMI) (P=0.035) in children without MetS, cholesterol in the total population (P=0.06) and children ≥9 years old (P=0.026), and with LDL in the total population and both age groups (P=0.001). The TG/HDL ratio was also positively correlated with alanine aminotransferase in the total population (P=0.033) and gamma-glutamyl transferase in most studied groups (P<0.001). Uric acid was positively correlated with waist circumference in the total population (P=0.043) and in those without MetS (P=0.027). It was also positively correlated with BMI, TG, cholesterol, and TG/HDL ratio and negatively correlated with HDL in most studied groups (P<0.005).

Conclusion: The studied parameters correlated with MetS components and could be characterized as effective indexes for childhood MetS, regardless of age and predisposition to MetS.

Keywords: Child; Metabolic syndrome; Uric acid; Triglyceride/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio.