title: The risk of metabolic syndrome according to the white blood cell count in apparently healthy Korean adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Considerable amount of interest has been focused on the positive relationship between inflammation and the metabolic syndrome (MS). However, few studies have been performed to evaluate the relationship between baseline white blood cell (WBC) count and future risk for developing MS. Therefore, we investigated whether the baseline plasma levels of WBC count could be associated with future risk for MS in apparently healthy Korean.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 1135 subjects (781 men and 354 women with a mean age of 49 years), who underwent health examinations at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital in both 2002 and 2005 were enrolled. The presence of MS was defined using the modified criteria of the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III using BMI instead of waist circumference.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The baseline levels of WBC count were significantly higher among incident MS cases than among subjects without MS. The relative risks of incident MS were 1.4, 3.2 and 2.7 for WBC quartiles 2, 3, and 4, respectively, when compared with the first quartile (p-value for trend<0.001). These positive associations persisted after adjustment for baseline body mass index, blood pressure, fasting glucose, high density lipoprotein-cholesterol, triglyceride and homeostatic model assessment-insulin resistance; adjusted relative risk of incident MS for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quartile groups vs. the lowest quartile were 1.2, 2.4 and 1.7, respectively (p-value for trend=0.011).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This retrospective cohort study suggests that an elevated WBC count could be associated with incident MS, suggesting that baseline inflammation mirrored by WBC level can impact future MS development.
authors.affiliation: Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 29 Saemunan-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-746, Korea.
authors.forename: Chan-Hee
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Won-Young
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Bo-Yeon
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Se Eun
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Eun-Jung
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Rhee
authors.forename: Cheol-Young
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Ki-Won
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Ji-Oh
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Mok
authors.forename: Chul-Hee
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sung-Woo
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Sun-Woo
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sung-Koo
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Kang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000097:blood*; D008875:Middle Aged; D056910:Republic of Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: White blood cell count; inflammation; metabolic syndrome
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