Obesity and metabolic syndrome among Egyptian adolescents

A considerable increase in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) has been reported in parallel to the increasing frequency of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. This study provides current estimates of the metabolic syndrome and some of its individual components in obese Egyptian adolescents. A total of 93 persons were submitted to this study and were classified into two groups. The first one included 53 obese patients without MS. Second group included 40 obese patients with MS. Both were compared with control group (40 healthy persons). All were cross matched regarding age, sex and race. The studied subjects were investigated for serum C-reactive protein (CRP), adiponectin and homocysteine (Hcy). In addition, some lipid parameters via total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein (HDL-c), low density lipoprotein (LDL-c) and triacylglycerol (TAG) were also determined to reflect the presence of dyslipidemia. Our study showed that there was a highly significant elevation of homeostatic model assessment- insulin resistant (HOMA-IR), CRP, homocysteine and lipid profile in patients without MS and with MS, while there was a highly significant decrease in adiponectin in the same patients. The results of this study suggest that Surrogate markers of insulin resistance such as fasting insulin, HOMA-IR, adiponectin and glucose tolerance test, could be a useful addition to routine evaluations of overweight children in order to alert clinicians to potential increased risk in those with IR even without MS