Metabolic syndrome and systemic inflammation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Background: Metabolic syndrome is a group of metabolic conditions that occur together representing a combination of cardiovascular risk determinants such as obesity, insulin resistance and lipid abnormalities such as hypertriglyceridemia, increased free fatty acids, low high-density-cholesterol and hypertension. Interleukin-6 (IL-6), is a 20.5 kDa protein that induces the expression of acute phase proteins and it is secreted by many different cell types. Aim of this work: To study the incidence of metabolic syndrome in COPD patients and to evaluate the role of IL 6 as a potent inflammatory marker in COPD patients with or without metabolic syndrome. Patients and methods: IL 6 levels were assayed in 50 patients diagnosed as having COPD with or without metabolic syndrome (patient group) as well as in 35 age and sex matched apparently healthy non smoker volunteers with no history of chronic chest troubles (control group) using the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique. Results: It was found that there were statistically significant differences between the two groups regarding the incidence of metabolic syndrome (P value = 0.0438). There was highly statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding the serum IL 6 level (P value < 0.0001). Conclusion: In conclusion, our findings suggest that the features of the metabolic syndrome may be frequent in patients with COPD than in the general population, so it is recommended to screen all the COPD patients for associated metabolic syndrome as well as elevated levels of inflammatory mediators including IL 6. (C) 2013 The Egyptian Society of Chest Diseases and Tuberculosis. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.