[Association of metabolic syndrome with serum cystatin C in people undergoing health examination]

Objective: To investigate the relationship between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and cystatin C in people undergoing healthy examination.

Methods: A total of 6 783 subjects were analyzed. They were divided into MetS group (n=1 578), metabolic disturbance (MetD) group (n=3 617) and healthy control (HC) group (n=1 588). The general information, anthropometry, blood sample and urine sample were collected for all the subjects. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for MetS and analysis of covariance was used to investigate the correlation between the number of metabolic disturbance components and cystatin C.

Results: Compared with the HC group, the level of cystatin C significantly increased in MetS and MetD group; compared with MetD group, the level of cystatin C significantly increased in MetS group (P<0.05). After correction by age, sex, smoking, alcohol intake, menopause, waist circumference, body mass index, blood pressure, plasma cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose, estimated glomerular filtration rate, serum uric acid, microalbuminria, high sensitive C-reaction protein and homocysteine, the cystatin C was closely related with MetS (OR=1.951, 95% CI 1.265-3.009, P<0.05). Similarly, the OR value of risk with MetS was increased with the quartile of cystatin C level (P<0.05). In addition, with the increase in metabolic disturbance components, the level of cystatin C was also increased significantly (P<0.01).

Conclusion: Serum cystatin C in our study was significantly associated with MetS. Moreover, the level of cystatin C may be correlated with severity of MetD.