VISCERAL ADIPOSITY INDICATORS AND ANTHROPOMETRIC INDICES AS SCREENING TOOLS OF METABOLIC SYNDROME AMONG CHINESE ATHLETIC PATIENTS

Aim: More alarming is the increase in the metabolic syndrome (MetS) prevalence in athletic patients suffering adult growth hormone deficiency (AGHD). Chinese visceral adipose index (CVAI) serves for measuring visceral adiposity as well as predicting Chinese people's MetS, while studies have not confirmed its predictive ability for AGHD athletic patients. The study aims at proving such predictive ability by directly comparing the screening abilities exhibited by CVAI, VAI, LAP, WHR, WHtR and WC for identifying MetS of AGHD athletic patients in China. Materials and methods: The study involved 113 AGHD athletic patients together with 113 healthy controls, calculating the CVAI, LAP, VAI, BMI, WHtR, WHR, and HOMA-IR. The definition of MetS followed the Joint Interim Statement criteria. The ROC assisted in comparing the AUC regarding each index, obtaining their cut-off points for the prediction of MetS. Results: The WC, WHR, WHtR, VAI, LAP and CVAI were in a higher level in AGHD patients. AGHD patients had a MetS prevalence of 41.3 %. AGHD athletic patients suffering MetS exhibited remarkably larger WC, WHR, WHtR, VAI, LAP, CVAI but lower IGF-1, relative to those without MetS. The CVAI was taken into account to divide AGHD patients to four quartiles. With the increase in CVAI, HDL-C, IGF-1 declined, while other related indicators were on the rise. Pearson analysis revealed the obvious association between CVAI, VAI and LAP with MetS, regardless of gender and age. According to the ROC curve of VAI and the anthropometric indicators (ATI) diagnosing metabolic syndrome, CVAI presented the maximum AUC value (85.80 and 84.45 for males and females, respectively) for AGHD patients. Conclusions: CVAI is able to effectively, reliably and screen MetS of Chinese AGHD athletic patients, and exhibits a better performance relative to the other adiposity measures for the evaluation of MetS in Chinese AGHD patients.