Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Obesity is a chronic disease associated with multiple comorbidities, defined by BMI, without considering the metabolic state of the patient. There are few data on the proportion of obese patients without metabolic syndrome (MS).

Objective: To characterize patients considered to be metabolically healthy (MH) followed at the obesity outpatient clinic of one University Hospital, and to compare this group with a group of obese patients with MS.

Material and methods: We retrospectively studied 300 patients. We collected information about clinical and demographic parameters, body composition, biochemical profile and abdominal ultrasound. We used the criteria of NCEP ATPIII to define MS; patients without MS were considered to be MH.

Results: A total of 69.3% patients (n=208) were considered MH. MH patients had an age of 40.9±12.6 y, 77.9% were female, had a weight of 107.2±21.6 Kg, BMI of 40.5±6.7 kg/m² (53.2% with obesity class III), waist circumference of 112.4±10.9 cm and fat mass of 44.7±7%. The most frequent comorbidities were hypertension (63.2%), hepatic steatosis (47.2%), psychiatric disorders (43.8%), dyslipidemia (43.3%), osteoarthritis (42.3%) and gallbladder lithiasis/cholecystectomy (17.5%). There was no statistically significant difference between patients with and without MS regarding gender, age, obesity class, body weight, BMI, waist circumference and % fat mass. Statistically significant difference were observed between the groups in glycemic parameters, blood pressure, HDL-C, LDL-C, TG and osteoarthritis.

Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of MH obese patients, who differed from their non-healthy counterparts regarding glycemic parameters, blood pressure, lipid metabolism and osteoarthritis (more prevalent in the patients with MS). However, more than half of MH patients had one or more conditions considered to be a comorbidity of obesity. A long-term prospective evaluation will be required to understand if there is a MH obesity or if this is inevitably associated with increased morbidity/mortality.