Inflammatory markers and cardiovascular risks among overweight-obese Emirati women.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of abdominal obesity among women in UAE is exceptionally high. However, its impact on cardiovascular health has not been adequately investigated. The aims of this study were to investigate: (1) correlations between inflammatory and oxidative biomarkers vs. anthropometric and metabolic measures; (2) rates of dyslipidemia, diabetes, and hypertension and (3) risks of cardiovascular disease. METHODS: One hundred ten "healthy" overweight/obese Emirati women attending nutrition counselling clinics were randomly recruited. All participants had completed questionnaire, physical examination and laboratory assessment. RESULTS: The participants' mean ± SD of age, body mass-index, waist circumference were 39 ± 9 years, 34 ± 6 kg/m(2) and 100 ± 13 cm respectively. Among the studied women 45 % met diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome showing a positive correlation of hsCRP with BMI (p = 0.002), body fat (p = 0.002) and waist circumference (p = 0.018). There was positive correlation of IL-6 with waist circumference (p = 0.019) and adiponectin with HDL (p = 0.007). Prevalence of HDL <1.3 mmol/L or triglycerides ≥1.7 mmol/L were 82 %, dysglycemia 31 %, and hypertension 27 and 37 % of women had either 'high' or 'moderate' calculated cardiovascular 10-year risk score. CONCLUSION: The levels of inflammatory and oxidative stress markers were highly prevalent among overweight/obese Emirati women and this may predispose to increasing cardiovascular risks at relatively young age. Thus effective strategies to impact cardiovascular burden and conducting outcome studies assessing the increased risk of cardiovascular disease and addressing obesity prevention among women are urgently needed.

ß-Thalassemia in Abu Dhabi: consanguinity and tribal stratification are major factors explaining the high prevalence of the disease.

Tribalism and consanguineous marriages are common in parts of the world with a high prevalence of the ß-thalassemia (ß-thal) mutations, and increase the risks of homozygosity for this and other recessive disorders. We explored the frequency of ß-thal genes and ß-thal carriers in 5672 subjects screened before marriage, of whom 2262 were couples. The mean coefficient of inbreeding (F) in the population was estimated from self-reported relationships to prospective spouses in 383 subjects. Overall frequency of ß-thal mutations and ß-thal carriers in the population were 1.16 and 2.3%, respectively. Among the 14 largest tribes, ß-thal carrier frequencies varied from 0 to 13.6%. The estimated F in the population was 0.022. The expected number of couples needed to be screened to detect one couple who were both ß-thal carriers in the non inbreeding (F = 0) and inbreeding (F = 0.022) population was 1858 and 646, respectively. However, among 2262 couples, 10 were both ß-thal carriers, i.e., 1 in 226 couples, significantly (p = 0.02) more than expected by taking only inbreeding into account. Although ß-thal mutations are relatively rare, the burden of ß-thal disease is increased eight-fold by tribalism and consanguinity.