Association of C-reactive Protein, Smoking and Metabolic Syndrome among the Health Check-up Population

• Published in: Acta Cardiologica Sinica Vol. 21; no. 2; pp. 98 - 104
• Main Authors: 簡國龍(Kuo-Liong Chien), 許秀卿(Hsiu-Ching Hsu), 陳明豐(Ming-Fong Chen), 李源德(Yuan-Teh Lee)
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Chinese; English
• Published: 台灣 中華民國心臟學會 01.06.2005
• Subjects: C-reactive protein; C-反應蛋白; Health check-up; MEDLINE; Metabolic syndrome; SCI; Scopus; Smoking; 代謝症候群; 健康檢查; 抽菸; 代謝症候群; C-reactive protein; 抽菸; Health check-up; 健康檢查; Metabolic syndrome; C-反應蛋白; Smoking
• ISSN: 1011-6842

Background: C-reactive protein (CRP) is considered a global inflammatory burden indicator. It was unknown which metabolic syndrome risk factor components could predict CRP levels and possible interaction with smoking in healthy young and elderly Taiwanese. Materials ＆ Methods: We collected totally 6,406 adult subjects (41.4% women) from January to December 2001 from the health screening program in a tertiary hospital in Taiwan. High CRP was classified as more than 5.31 mg/L, which was the 90th percentile cutoff value. Components of metabolic syndrome were defined by the modified Adult Treatment Panel Ⅲ criteria. Results: There were 13.5% of the study population with age older than 65 years, with 7.2% abstinence and 17.3% current smokers. The average CRP levels, after adjusting for gender and smoking effects, were 3.43 mg/L in young and 4.64 mg/L in elderly population (p＜0.0001). The prevalence rate of metabolic syndrome was 19.4%, higher in elderly than young age (29.1% vs. 17.9%, p＜0.0001). CRP levels were positively related with smoking status. After adjusting for multiple variables such as gender and smoking status, high CRP levels still strongly associated with metabolic syndrome. Conclusions: CRP was significantly associated with smoking and metabolic syndrome. Inflammation, smoking and atherosclerotic risks were interrelated among healthy population in Taiwan.