Some biochemical changes in postmenopausal women with and without metabolic syndrome

Women with the metabolic syndrome are known to be at especially high risk for cardiovascular disease [CVD]. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome increases dramatically with menopause and may partially explain the apparent increase CVD after menopause. This study was performed to investigate the relationships between metabolic syndrome [MS] related parameters and the cardiovascular risk factors in Saudi postmenopausal women. Subjects with MS had significantly higher plasma levels of glucose, uric acid, TC, LDL-c, triacylglycerol and atherogenic index, and lower levels of HDL-c and zinc compared to subjects without MS. Also, the subjects with MS had significantly higher levels of plasma ALT, AST, transferrin, TIBC and ferritin in comparison to those without MS. Postmenopausal women with MS had significantly higher levels of plasma iron compared with control group and premenopausal women with MS. Plasma ALT was positively correlated with ferritin level, waist circumference, body mass index, iron, and AST in postmenopausal women with MS. On other hand, ferritin level was associated with the variables of metabolic syndrome [positive correlation with systolic blood pressure, triacylglycerol, LDL-c], and also was positively correlated with iron, and ALT. In conclusion, there is an association between postmenopausal status, MS and cardiovascular risk. Furthermore, levels of plasma ferritin are correlated with the levels of LDL-c, ALT and AST as well as with the components of metabolic syndrome in Saudi postmenopausal women. Because of the severe implications of cardiovascular diseases, counseling programs directed towards high-risk populations should be endorsed

Obesity and hypertension; non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus patients

To assess the associations of obesity and hypertension in diabetics and non-diabetics. A total of 430 Saudi patients suffering from non-insulin-dependent [type 2] diabetes mellitus comprising of 205[48%] males and 225[52%] females were studied. Height and weight were measured for calculating body mass index [BMI]. The type 2 diabetics and non-diabetic individuals were investigated separately to determine the prevalence of obesity and overweight. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure was recorded using the standard method in a sitting position. The patients were diagnosed as diabetics and hypertensive on the criteria of the World Health Organization. The prevalence of obesity was 16.7% and 22.9%, and overweight was 27.1% and 22.9% in the total men and women studied in healthy non-diabetics; while the prevalence of obesity was 26.8% and 42.7%, and overweight was 45.8 and 38.2% in the total men and women, in the diabetics respectively. In diabetic subjects, glycemic status [HbA[1c]] and BMI had coefficient of correlation between 26 matched pairs as r= 0.36, but not impressive. In over-all population, irrespective of gender, the diabetic subjects had higher obesity/overweight [ob/ow] ratio value [0.84] than non-diabetics [0.79].The prevalence of HT in non-diabetic group was 4.42% in males compared to 2.1% in females, while in the diabetic group the prevalence of HT was 24.39% in males and 41.33% in females, respectively. Prevalence of HT in diabetics was higher in females than males, in contrast to non-diabetics. Our study shows that obesity and hypertension are both contributing factors in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus; and the measures should be adopted for control of obesity and hypertension to reduce the cause of diabetes mellitus

Validity of IGF-1, IGF binding protein-3 and their ratios with prostate-specific antigen [PSA] in the clinical diagnosis of patients with prostate cancer

This study was done aiming to evaluate the validity of IGF-1, IGFBP-3 and thereof ratios with prostate specific antigen [PSA] in diagnosis of prostate cancer. The study included 60 prostate cancer patients, 44 benign prostatic hyperplasia [BPH] patients and 40 normal male subjects. Serum levels of IGF-1, IGFBP-3, PSA and fPSA were quantified. The possible associations between parameters were assessed. The validity [sensitivity and specificity] were evaluated by ROC curve analysis. The areas under curve [AUC] were 0.88, 0.81, 0.57, 0.59 and 0.62 for PSA, free/total PSA, IGF-1, IGFBP-3 and IGF-1/IGFBP-3 respectively. IGFBP-3/PSA ratio offered a high validity with an AUC of 0.87, whereas IGF-1 /PSA ratio offered the best sensitivity to specificity ratio [0.89]. IGF-1 had no significant differences between studied groups while, IGF-1/PSA ratio was found to differentiate significantly among metastatic, localized prostate cancer and control groups. A significance difference was noted for IGFBP-3/PSA ratio between prostate cancer and control groups. From our study it can be concluded that serum IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 may have no ability merely by themselves to discriminate prostate cancer, but their combinations with PSA proved to be valid tool for the significant discrimination of prostate cancer as well as reflecting the progression of the disease