Associations Between Homeostasis Model Assessment (HOMA) and Routinely Examined Parameters in Individuals With Metabolic Syndrome
Abstract
The aim of the study was to investigate whether routine clinical parameters, including visceral adiposity index (VAI) and atherogenic index of plasma (AIP), could become widely applicable predictors of insulin resistance (IR), evaluated using homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR, HOMA-beta), with regard to presence of metabolic syndrome (MS). The study comprised 188 individuals identified to meet the MS criteria during regular health examinations and an equal number of age, sex-matched controls without MS.
The strongest correlations were noted between HOMA-IR and waist circumference (WC) in the MS group (r=0.57) as well as between HOMA-IR and alanine aminotransferase (ALT, r=0.57) or aspartate aminotransferase (r=0.56) in the controls, with a statistical significance of p<0.001. In a multivariate linear regression model, the predictors of HOMA-IR were WC (linear coefficient beta=0.1, p<0.001), ALT (beta=2.28, p<0.001) and systolic blood pressure (beta=0.04, p<0.001).
HOMA-beta was determined by WC (beta=1.97, p=0.032) and ALT (beta=99.49, p=0.004) and inversely associated with age (beta=-1.31, p=0.004). Neither VAI nor AIP were significant predictors.
The presence of MS was significantly associated with both HOMA-IR and HOMA-beta. These results indicate that WC and ALT appear to be reliable predictors of IR.
Comprehensive assessment of these parameters may serve for estimating the level of IR.