Endocrine Abstracts

Insulin resistance (IR) occurs as part of a cluster of cardiovascular-metabolic abnormalities. Given the seriousness of the cardiovascular diseases data there is the increasing burden of diabetes.

The aim of the study was to investigate insulin resistant in association with cardiovascular risk factors among 45–84-year-old citizens of Palanga.

Methods

A randomized epidemiological study was performed with 850 subjects. All participants were evaluated for sociodemographic, clinical, cardiovascular risk factors and biochemical analysis (including glucose, insulin, thyroid hormones (TH), total cholesterol, LDL and HDL and triglyceride). IR was evaluated by homeostasis model assessment of IR (HOMA-IR).

Results

All study participants were stratified into groups without IR (HOMA-IR£2.7) 67% (n = 557) and with IR (HOMA-IR > 2.7) 33% (n = 278). Participants with IR were more likely to be older, female and have lower education. The analysis between two groups showed some significant relationships between IR and cardiovascular risks factors, e.g. triglyceride levels was significantly higher (respectively 1.7 and 1.2 mmol/l) and HDL significantly was lower (respectively 1.3 and 1.6 mmol/l) in group with IR compared with group without IR. The IR group had a statistically significant higher incidence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) (51.4% and 16.2%, respectively) compared with group without IR (11.0% and 3.1%, respectively). There were no significant differences of TH between groups according to RI. However in groups according to MetS, concentrations of TSH, FT3 and FT3/FT4 ratio differed significantly. Significantly higher TSH and lower FT3 was in the group with MetS. The predictable accuracy was presented using receiver performance characteristics curves for HOMA-IR scores in women and man separate. If the HOMA-IR score is higher than 3.45, he or she is significant more likely to have T2DM. In men cut-off was higher (3.52), with higher sensitivity (94.1), but slightly lower specificity (79.9) compared with women (respectively 3.35, 65.0 and 84.4). These data demonstrated invariant relationship between HOMA-IR and presence of T2DM.

Conclusions

The results showed several significant associations between IR and cardiovascular risk factors, as well as between higher TSH, lower FT3, and MetS. HOMA-IR cut-offs can predict the presence of T2DM and HOMA-IR can be used not only for indicating the presence of IR.

Acknowledgement

This research is funded by a grant (No. S-SEN-20-13) from the Research Council of Lithuania.