BMI-based Metabolic syndrome severity score and arterial stiffness in a cohort Chinese study

Background and Aims To investigate the relationship between metabolic syndrome severity z score(MetS-Z) and arterial stiffness(AS). Methods and Results A total of 7 621 participants who took three physical examination and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity(ba-pwv) test from 2006 were enrolled. Cumulative MetS-Z(cMetS-Z) were calculated by using blood pressure, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, blood glucose and BMI. AS was assessed by ba-pwv. Cox regression model was used to evaluate the risk of AS. All the participants were divided into four groups according to cMetS-Z(Q1-Q4). The average age of the participants was 43.06±8.91 years old. During a median follow-up of 6.27 years, 1 831cases of AS was identified. The incident rate of AS increased gradually from group Q1 to Q4. Compared with the lowest cMetS-Z(group Q1), the adjusted hazard ratios(HR) and 95% confidence intervals(CIs) of group Q2-Q4 for AS were 1.27 (1.09-1.47),1.28(1.10-1.48) and 1.45 (1.24-1.69) respectively. The cubic spline model indicated cMetS-Z had a liner relationship with AS and the cut-off value was lower than zero. Sub-group analysis suggested cMetS-Z was related to AS especially among participants who were younger and without obesity or hypertension or diabetes. Conclusion Higher cMetS-Z was associated with an increased risk of AS in this cohort community study, and this relationship seemed to be stronger among normal healthy subjects. Registration number ChiCTR-TNC-11001489. Clinical trial January 1st 2006, ChiCTR-TNC-11001489 and 2011.