Volume 2012, Article ID 815098, 7 pages doi:10.1155/2012/815098 Clinical Study

Copyright © 2012 Taro Narumi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Insulin resistance (IR) is part of the metabolic syndrome (Mets) that develops after lifestyle changes and obesity. Although the association between Mets and myocardial injury is well known, the effect of IR on myocardial damage remains unclear. Methods and Results. We studied 2200 normal subjects who participated in a community-based health check in the town of Takahata in northern Japan. The presence of IR was assessed by homeostasis model assessment ratio, and the serum level of heart-type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP) was measured as a maker of silent and ongoing myocardial damage. H-FABP levels were significantly higher in subjects with IR and Mets than in those without metabolic disorder regardless of gender. Multivariate logistic analysis showed that the presence of IR was independently associated with latent myocardial damage (odds ratio: 1.574, 95 % confidence interval 1.1–2.3) similar to the presence of Mets. Conclusions. In a screening of healthy subjects, IR and Mets wer