Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Early diagnosis of obesity, as well as prevention of its occurrence in high-risk patients, plays an important role in the prevention of severe cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. The study of leptin and ghrelin are one of important pathogenetic aspect of obesity. At the same time, such factors as hypodynamia, low physical activity and insulin resistance contribute to the formation of sarcopenic obesity, which is characterized by the loss of muscle tissue and muscle strength with replacement by adipose tissue. The aim of the study was to carry out a comprehensive assessment of some pathogenetic aspects of diagnosis of sarcopenic obesity.

Materials and methods: 68 obese and overweight patients were examined: 32 men and 36 women. The average age of the patients was 45±11.73 years. Depending on the body mass index, all patients were divided into 2 groups: group I -31 overweight patients, group II - 37 patients with obesity I and II degrees. The control group - 20 healthy people. All patients underwent a bioimpedance examination with a study of the component composition of the body. Determination of the serum levels of ghrelin and leptin was carried out by the ELISA method. Statistical data processing was performed using the STATISTICA 10.0 computer program (StatSoftInc, USA).

Results: According to the results of the bioimpedance examination, all patients had a deficiency of muscle. The level of leptin in overweight patients was higher compared to the control group (3.1±0.28 ng/ml), but was within the reference values (6.57±0.39 ng/ml). At the same time, a significant statistically significant increase in the level of leptin was observed in obese patients compared to both studied groups (up to 41.72±5.22 ng/ml). Ghrelin levels were increased in both groups and were highest in group 1 (up to 247.5±10.09 ng/ml) and moderately increased in patients in group 2 (up to 120.93±5.57 ng/ml), P=0.005 compared to controls. A positive correlation between serum leptin and the content of fat mass was also established (r=0.89203; р=0.01303). At the same time, a negative correlation between the level of ghrelin and fat mass (r=-0.70641; P=0.030251) was found in all studied patients.

Conclusion: Determining the level of ghrelin in blood serum is a more sensitive and informative pathogenetic marker for detecting the sarcopenic form of obesity at an early stage of the disease.