Contribution of abdominal visceral obesity and insulin resistance to the cardiovascular risk profile of postmenopausal women

The aim of this study was to determine the respective contribution of abdominal visceral adipose tissue (AT) accumulation and insulin resistance (IR) to the deter-mination of a comprehensive cardiovascular metabolic risk profile in 108 postmenopausal women not receiving hormone therapy. Insulin sensitivity (M/I) was deter-mined by a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp, and vis-ceral AT area was measured by computed tomography. Median values of visceral AT (133.9 cm2) and insulin sensitivity (0.010189 mg kg1 min1 pmol1) were used to form four subgroups: 1) low visceral AT–low IR (n 35), 2) low visceral AT–high IR (n 19), 3) high visceral AT–low IR (n 19), and 4) high visceral AT–high IR (n 35). Women with isolated IR (low visceral AT and high IR) were characterized by signifi