Mammographic breast density in postmenopausal women presenting with the disturbances of carbohydrate metabolism and metabolic syndrome

Abstract

Mammographic breast density (MBD) was determined visually in 51 postmenopausal women examined in the fasting state and after oral glucose level for obtaining their anthropometric and laboratory characteristics. The women presenting with impaired glucose tolerance/newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus (n=16) had the same MBD values as those having no such disorders (n=35). In the presence of the symptoms of metabolic syndrome, mammographic breast density tended to decrease to 16.5±4.3% in 17 women compared with 24.4±3.1% in 34 women without such symptoms. The diabetes risk score, unlike the blood glucose and reactive insulin levels, showed negative correlation with the MBD values. Such inverse relationship was especially pronounced in the women with the disturbances of carbohydrate metabolism and symptoms of metabolic syndrome. The inverse correlation between these characteristics and MBD values showed the strong dependence on the body mass index. It is concluded that parameters associated with impaired glucose tolerance and metabolic syndrome considered to be risk factors of the development of breast cancer are unrelated to increased mammographic breast density which suggests the difference in the mechanisms responsible for hormonal and metabolic predisposition to these pathologies.