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Leptin Levels Associated With Cardiovascular Risk Factors: Presented at EAS

By Norra MacReady

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC -- April 27, 2005 -- Serum leptin levels correlate with some markers of the metabolic syndrome in obese individuals and could serve as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, researchers reported here at the 75^th European Atherosclerosis Society Congress.

Luis Lima Faleiro, MD, department of cardiology, Institute Nacional de Saude, Lisbon, Portugal, and colleagues measured serum leptin levels in 42 men and 61 women ranging in age from 30 to 66 years and evaluated them in relation to body mass index (BMI), fasting insulin and glucose levels, insulin sensitivity as measured by the homeostasis model assessment (HOMA), and cholesterol levels.

Study subjects were at high risk of cardiovascular disease due either to family history or to presence of 1 or more risk factors, Dr. Faleiro said during a poster presentation here on April 25^th.

Among men, the highest leptin tertile was more than 15.2 ng/mL; the middle tertile ranged from 8.99 to 15.2 ng/mL; and the lowest tertile was < 8.99 ng/mL. Among women, the highest to lowest tertiles ranged from > 47.1 ng/mL, 24.6-47.1 ng/mL, and < 24.6 ng/mL, respectively.

The relationship between serum leptin levels and cardiovascular risk factors varied somewhat according to sex. In women, leptin measurements correlated strongly with BMI, fasting insulin, and HOMA. Weaker but still significant correlations were also seen with serum triglycerides and uric acid levels.

Men displayed similar correlations between serum leptin levels and BMI, fasting insulin, and HOMA, but not with triglycerides or uric acid. The researchers found no correlations with total, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in either sex.

Leptin levels also showed a correlation with the number of metabolic risk factors present. These findings varied somewhat according to sex, but in general at least 70% of the people in the lowest quartile of leptin levels (< 5.28 ng/mL for men, < 18.6 ng/mL for women) had no metabolic risk factors. None of the women in this quartile had more than 1 risk factor, while 10% of the men had 2 risk factors.

The prevalence of multiple risk factors increased with increasing leptin quartile for both sexes, so that 73% of the men in the fourth quartile (> 18.7 ng/mL) had at least 3 risk factors and the remaining 27% had 2, while 33% of the women in the highest quartile (> 49.8 ng/mL) had 3 or more risk factors, 35% had 2, and 13% had 1. Twenty percent of the women in the fourth quartile had no risk factors.

These findings support the theory that leptin levels should be monitored along with other markers of cardiovascular risk, the investigators said.


[Presentation title: Leptin, Obesity, and Other Metabolic Syndrome Risk Factors in a Portuguese Population Sample for Cardiovascular Prevention. Poster W08-P17]

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