Endocrine Abstracts

HPA axis that plays important controlling and modulating functions in organism is also linked with insulin resistance and weight control. The number of evidences linking cortisol secretion with obesity and other metabolic complication increase, but still there is a lack of definitive results. Therefore the aim of our study was to compare adrenal function parameters between high and normal insulin resistant overweight and obese women. This retrospective analysis was performed on the group of 70 adult polish Caucasian overweight and obese women with the mean age of 40 years. Mean BMI for the whole group was 38 kg/m². Exclusion criteria were: pregnancy or breastfeeding, history of any pituitary or adrenal gland disorders, current or previous usage of any glucocorticoid-containing medications, other drugs known to affect cortisol level and patients with diagnosis of severe liver or kidney dysfunctions and acute or chronic inflammatory disorder at the time of measurements. Patients were divided into two groups according to HOMA-IR value (cut-off point of 3.8). Statistical analysis was performed using Statistica software. Differences between lower HOMA-IR and higher HOMA-IR groups were determined by student t test and Mann-Whitney U test when appropriate. To analyze correlations between measured values Spearman correlation coefficiency was calculated. P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Patients with higher HOMA-IR have higher morning cortisol concentration (504.36 vs 425.82 nmol/l) and lower DHEA-S concentration (170.18 vs 227.49 μg/dl), although these differences were not statistically significant. There was statistically significant difference between higher and lower HOMA-IR groups in evening cortisol concentration (248.28 and 186.02 nmol/l, respectively, P=0.007) and cortisol/DHEA-S ratio (5.73 vs 2.73, P=0.003). For the whole group studied there was statistically significant positive correlation between cortisol/DHEAS ratio and HOMA-IR (r=0.39, P=0.001). There is a significant association between evening cortisol secretion and HOMA-IR and between cortisol/DHEA-S ratio and HOMA-IR.