Plasma leptin in insulin-resistant and insulin-nonresistant coronary artery disease and its association with cardio-metabolic risk factors among Asian Indians.

BACKGROUND: The relationship between plasma leptin and insulin resistance among coronary artery disease (CAD) subjects remains poorly understood. We determined plasma leptin levels in insulin-resistant and insulin-nonresistant CAD patients. We also examined the association of plasma leptin with several cardiometabolic risk factors in all of the study group subjects from an Asian Indian population.

METHODS: We evaluated 130 subjects among the Asian Indian population. Out of these, 65 were CAD subjects and 65 were age- and sex-matched, healthy, non-CAD controls. Fasting plasma levels of leptin, insulin, glucose, homocysteine, fibrinogen, and lipid parameters were estimated for all the subjects. Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were also determined.

RESULTS: We observed raised levels of leptin as well as homocysteine, BMI, and WC among the insulin-resistant CAD subjects compared to the insulin-nonresistant CAD subjects. Similarly, a significant elevation in plasma leptin, homocysteine, BMI, and WC was observed among the insulin-resistant controls compared to the insulin-nonresistant controls. Plasma leptin in CAD patients was correlated significantly with overall and abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, and insulin levels. However, it was nonsignificantly correlated with plasma homocysteine, fibrinogen, mean arterial pressure, and dyslipidemia in CAD subjects. On multiple regression analysis, we observed that raised plasma leptin in CAD was significantly associated with insulin resistance independent of obesity.

CONCLUSIONS: Our data showed a signifcant association of plasma leptin levels with insulin resistance in CAD that was independent of obesity.