Leptin: Adiponectin ratio discriminated the risk of metabolic syndrome better than adiponectin and leptin in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract Aim To assess the ability of leptin, adiponectin and leptin: adiponectin ratio (LAR) to discriminate apparently healthy subjects with metabolic syndrome in Southwest Nigeria. Methods One hundred and twenty three subjects with metabolic syndrome (cases) were age matched with 123 subjects without metabolic syndrome. The serum adiponectin and leptin levels were measured using standard procedures. The ability of serum adiponectin, leptin and LAR to discriminate metabolic syndrome and its components were determined using the receiver operating curve and linear regression. Results The median age of the cases (49 IQR 42, 56 years) was not significantly different from the controls (48 IQR 39, 56 years) p = 0.252. The adiponectin levels was reduced with increasing number of the components of metabolic syndrome from 11.6 (IQR 9.6, 13.5) among subjects without any component of metabolic syndrome to 6.5 (IQR 5.7, 7.7) in subjects with more than three components of metabolic syndrome. For leptin and LAR, the values increased with increasing components (p  Conclusion LAR had better ability to discriminate the risk of metabolic syndrome than adiponectin and leptin alone in males and females among apparently healthy subjects from Southwest Nigeria.