ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: C-reactive protein (CRP) is one of the increasing plasma proteins in inflammatory diseases and tissue necrosis and recent evidence show that increased elevated levels of CRP are associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and obesity. To investigate the relationship of obesity and CRP, we evaluated the correlation of CRP with obesity index in healthy adults. METHODS: The subjects included 1,926 healthy adults (1,168 men and 758 women) who visited the Health Promotion Center of a general hospital from May to December 2004. We excluded subjects who had inflammatory diseases, and investigated based on age, physical examination, blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, serum lipid profile, percentage of body fat, and body mass index (BMI). CRP was analyzed by method of Turbid Immuno Assay (TIA) which has high sensitivity-CRP. We evaluated serum level of CRP in relation to %body fat, BMI, and clustering of metabolic risk factors. RESULTS: Comparing the median CRP with the percentage of body fat, BMI, clustering of metabolic risk factors the value of CRP significantly increased according to increase in %body fat BMI and metabolic risk fakfor (P or =0.22 mg/dL) was increased as %body fat, BMI, and clustering of metabolic risk factor increased. The Odds Ratios for elevated levels of CRP were 1.5 (95% CI 1.0~2.1) in men and 2.9 (95% CI 1.7~4.8) in women for subjects with obesity (BMI> or =25 kg/m2), 2.0 (95% CI 1.3~2.9) in men with more than 25% %body fat, and 2.5 (95% CI 1.4~4.1) in women with more than 30% %body fat. CONCLUSION: As %body fat increased, the proportion of elevated CRP (> or =0.22 mg/dL) level increased in men and women. We conclude that obesity is related with CRP.