Racial Differences in Cardiometabolic Complications in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Abstract

BackgroundPolycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), the most common endocrine disorder in reproductive‐age women, is characterized by androgen excess and ovarian dysfunction. PCOS women have an increased prevalence of components of the metabolic syndrome, such as increased blood pressure (BP), insulin resistance and obesity. Whether African American women with PCOS have worse cardiometabolic profile than Caucasian remains unknown.AimsTo determine the prevalence of components of the metabolic syndrome in patients of different ethnicity with PCOS in the state of Mississippi.MethodsUniversity of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) de‐identified patient data from 2013–2017 was obtained from electronic medical records (EMR) using UMMC’s Research Data Warehouse. Cardiometabolic risk factors were analyzed and compared between African American and Caucasian PCOS women. Data is expressed as mean. SEM and statistical analysis was performed using SPSS.ResultsDuring the 2013 to 2017 period, EMR of 1,200 PCOS patients were obtained and analyzed from a total of 784,666 patients that were evaluated at UMMC. Compared to Caucasians, African American women with PCOS have significantly higher mean arterial BP (97.06±0.52 vs 94.23±0.48 mmHg p<0.001), hemoglobin A1C (6.03±0.08 vs 5.63±0.07 % p<0.001) and Body Mass Index (39.30±0.43 vs 36.05±0.39 p<0.001). About 44% of patients with PCOS have a BMI more than 40 (morbid obesity).ConclusionsMorbid obesity is highly prevalent in patients with PCOS in the Mississippian population cared for at UMMC. African American women with PCOS have a significantly higher prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors than Caucasians. Lifestyle modifications should be implemented to ameliorate the prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors in patients with PCOS.Support or Funding InformationFunding for this research is supported by NIH R01 HL135089 (JFR), P20 GM12334(LLY, ETF, JFR, DGR) and PO1HL51971 (JFR).