Relationship of C-reactive protein to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome

Objective To assess the association between the level of serum high sensitive C-reactive protein(hs-CRP),metabolic syndrome(MS) and insulin resistance.Methods Four hundred and eight outpatients of suspected diabetes mellitus(male 207,female 201) after medical check-up were enrolled.Their serum hs-CRP level and anthropometrical parameters,plasma glucose,lipid,fast insulin were measured,and Homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance(HOMA-IR) was calculated.All the patients were divided into two groups: MS group(195 subjects) and non-MS group(213 subjects).The correlation of hs-CRP,insulin resistance and MS were analysed.Results The median hs-CRP in MS( 18.7 mg/L) was significantly higher than that without MS ( 9.1 mg/L)(P 0.001 ).Hs-CRP level increased with the number of abnormal components of MS.The morbidities of abnormal glucose tolerance,dyslipidemia,hypertension,obesity and metabolic syndrome increased with hs-CRP level.The correlation coefficients between hs-CRP and waist circumstance,TG and HDL,gender and age were of statistical significance in linear regression analyses (r= 0.32 , 0.17 , -0.12 , -0.14 , 0.11 ,P 0.05 ).Conclusion MS and insulin resistance are associated with inflammatory response,hs-CRP level can be used as an important marker of MS.