C Reactive Protein Can Be a Marker of Metabolic Syndrome in Girls from Childhood to Adolescence

Abstract

As inflammation is a hallmark of most chronic diseases, this article presents a unique condition in two aspects: age and sex. From a population of students aged from two to 19 years old a subgroup with total cholesterol above 150 mg/dl was selected so as to study the C Reactive Protein levels and correlate them with factors that can be risk markers for Metabolic Syndrome. Most trials and scientific publications did not focus in the female sex nor on younger age groups and its specific characteristics. Nowadays these aspects are gaining relevance. This paper aim is to study the levels of C Reactive Protein as an inflammatory marker, priorizing its role in Metabolic Syndrome in girls from childhood to adolescence. It is noteworthy to study the effect of Total Cholesterol in values superior to 150 mg/dl as to the inflammation marker C Reactive Protein and its correlation to Metabolic Syndrome risk markers in a special group of female children and adolescent students. The participants were all above the 80th percentile for Total Cholesterol values. Statistical significances and tendencies were found in the sedentary group aswell as in the higher Non HDL, the higher Triglycerides also, Blood Pressure and Abdominal Circumference. In this analysis neither lower HDL Cholesterol nor smoking habit in their parents were relevant. With the increasing epidemics of overweight and obesity there must be a main focus in prevention. In this paper, the data point to an early start, because of the risk of Metabolic Syndrome. The results in girls as early as childhood to teenage is alarming and claim for public and personal interventions, specifically through healthy lifestyle modifications.