Waist circumference and serum adiponectin levels in obese and non-obese postmenopausal women.

Abstract Objectives A proposed missing link between obesity and metabolic disturbances is adiponectin, an adipocyte-derived peptide. Adiponectin is a potent antidiabetic hormone and seems to have a beneficial influence on lipid profile as well. The need to explain the complex physiological roles of this hormone prompted the authors to study the relationship between adiponectin level and obesity – related abnormalities in a homogenous population of postmenopausal women. Study design The study involved 272 postmenopausal women aged 50–60 years. Invitations to participate in the study were sent to 4000 randomly chosen women from the Wroclaw city population fulfilling the age criterion. A telephone questionnaire was administered to the group of 1731 women who responded to the invitation and then subjects for the study were selected. Main outcome measures anthropometrical measurements of body fat tissue content and fat tissue distribution assessment were carried out in all the women. Moreover, serum concentrations of adiponectin, glucose, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides and insulin were measured. Results The most frequent (76%) phenotype among the investigated women was obesity (BMI >25) with abnormal (= 80 cm) waist circumference (OAW), Obesity with normal ( p p  = 0.05). In all the women, serum adiponectin level correlated negatively with BMI ( r  = −0.34, p  = 0.0001), total fat ( r  = −0.28, p  = 0.0001), android fat deposit ( r  = −0.23, p  = 0.0001), waist circumference ( r  = −0.33, p  = 0.0001), glucose ( r  = −0.27, p  = 0.0001), triglycerides ( r  = −0.34, p  = 0.0001), and FIRI ( r  = −0.34, p  = 0.0001) and positively with the gynoid/android fat deposit ratio ( r  = 0.28, p  = 0.0001) and HDL cholesterol ( r  = 0.36, p  = 0.0001). Conclusions These results confirm that adiponectin could be a marker of the development of menopausal insulin resistance syndrome.