Endocrine Abstracts

Objectives: • PCOS is defined by the presence of hyperandrogenism (clinical and/or biochemical), ovarian dysfunction (oligo-anovulation and/or polycystic ovaries), and the exclusion of related disorders.

• Women are exposed to increased risk for cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus and other metabolic complications

• Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the most common cause of mortality worldwide

• Women with PCOS appear to have increased number of risks compared to healthy, age-matched women at any age. The question remains unanswered whether this increased cardiovascular risk in women with PCOS can be translated also to increased cardiovascular events.

• PCOS is not only one of the commonest causes of subfertility in women, but it has also many metabolic consequences. It is associated with insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus, obesity, dyslipidemia as well as alterations of the fibrinolytic system.

• All the above are independent, traditional cardiovascular risk factors that can predispose women with PCOS to early onset CVD.

Methods: • In the next Figure we present the combination and the interaction of the main cardiovascular risk factors in women with PCOS

• The CVD factors included and combined are insulin resistance, androgen levels, systolic blood pressure, body mass index (BMI) and androgen levels.

• This Figure illustrates that women who have many risk factors are, possibly, at increased risk for cardiovascular events

• The different CVD risks are depicted in different colors and the number of co-existing risks that are present in one woman is reflected with the intensity of the color

Discussion: • In this figure is a scheme which combines wellknown CVD risk factors with and without the presence of hyperandrogenemia, a specific dishormonal alteration for PCOS women, reflecting a unifying approach of CVD risk factors in women with PCOS

• This may provide a more individualized assessment of how real is the cardiovascular risk in these women

• It may be used as a tool of assessing the potentiality of multiple interconnections of CVD risk factors linked with cardiovascular events in women with PCOS

Conclusion: • This type of combined presentation of CVD risk factors may prove to be of clinical significance in PCOS, as it could help of real life CVD risk stratification and subsequently prevention or targeted therapeutic management of these patients