Abstract
Background/Aims: Prior studies relating inflammatory biomarkers to obesity demonstrated a correlation between elevated body mass index (BMI) and elevated C-reactive protein (CRP). To date, however, little research has examined the association of the newer, high-sensitivity CRP assay (hs-CRP) to BMI of both men and women.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the association between BMI and hs-CRP by gender was estimated in 376 subjects recruited from a network of community-based, primary care clinics in eastern Pennsylvania. The data were analyzed with Spearman’s correlation and multivariate linear regression, accounting for age, gender, high density lipoprotein, and hypertension. The natural logarithmic transformation was used due to the presence of right-skewness of the distribution of hs-CRP.
Results: All subjects were Caucasian, 52% were male with a mean age of 62, BMI of 30.6. The sample consisted of 21% with diabetes mellitus and 72% with hypertension. There was a significant positive association between BMI and hs-CRP (r=0.28) for the entire sample. This association was slightly weaker in males (r=0.24) compared to females (r=0.31), and did not significantly vary (P=0.9425). The adjusted associations demonstrated limited confounding (males: r=0.23; females: r=0.28), suggesting that BMI may be an independent factor for elevated hs-CRP.
Conclusions: BMI and hs-CRP correlate positively, slightly more for women than men. In patients with elevated BMI, elevated hs-CRP has potential for use as a cardiac risk stratification tool. Elevated levels of hs-CRP in the obese individual could direct initiation of statin use to reduce the chronic inflammatory state or assist in cardiac risk stratification. In a time of limited patient resources and tighter budgets, these data give promise for the judicious use of biomarkers based on BMI for cardiac risk stratification.
- Received September 11, 2008.
