Correlation of CRP, fasting serum triglycerides and obesity as cardiovascular risk factors.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the correlation of C-reactive protein (CRP) with fasting triglycerides (TG) among pre-obese and obese patients without established diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD).


METHODS
A comparative cross-sectional study.


METHODS
Mayo Hospital, Lahore, from January to June 2010.


METHODS
Patients with BMI > 23 kg/m2 aged between 18 - 65 years were inducted and above variables were studied. Patients with signs of fluid retention, collagen vascular disease, CAD, patients on corticosteroids, immunomodulators or lipid lowering medications and febrile patients were not recruited. Body mass index was also determined. Independent sample t-test was applied to see the mean difference of age, CRP level and triglycerides level in relation to gender. Chi-square test was used to see the association between qualitative variables. ANOVA was applied to see CRP and fasting serum TG level in relation to BMI categories. Pearson correlation and simple linear regression was applied to see the dependency of CRP and triglycerides with BMI. P-value ² 0.05 was taken as significant.


RESULTS
Raised CRP was major finding among all groups of BMI. Most of obese and pre-obese patients were young and middle aged and belonged to pre-obese group followed by class-1 and class-2 obesity. CRP level increased with body mass index. No such trend was observed for triglycerides. There was an intermediate positive correlation between CRP and BMI and triglycerides and BMI showed a weak negative correlation. If BMI increases by 1 unit on the average, CRP rises by 0.239 times and this unit rise was significant. Whereas 1 unit rise increase in triglycerides on the average cause CRP to decrease -0.006 times but this value was insignificant.


CONCLUSIONS
Raised CRP and high fasting TG were major findings in all age groups especially among young and middle aged people. Obesity, hypertriglyceridemia and raised CRP are interrelated suggesting that obesity is not only linked to hypertriglyceridemia but vascular inflammation among pre-obese and obese without overt diabetes mellitus causes high CRP as well and this can be used as a marker to predict the future risk of CAD. However, in the absence of dyslipidaemia, raised CRP can still be considered as a strong predictor of CAD and stroke.
Mayo Hospital, Lahore.
Samar
S
Firdous
D000328:Adult; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000097:blood*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005215:Fasting; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000097:blood* / Q000378:metabolism; D012307:Risk Factors; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood*
D001786:Blood Glucose; D014280:Triglycerides; D002097:C-Reactive Protein