Fetuin-a to adiponectin ratio is a sensitive indicator for evaluating metabolic syndrome in the elderly

BACKGROUND: Fetuin-A and adiponectin present significant associations, supported by recent evidence, with metabolic syndrome (MS) featuring hyperglycemia, central obesity and insulin resistance as the main components, but their biological functions are opposite. The aim of this study was to verify whether fetuin-A/adiponectin ratio (F/A ratio) is a more sensitive indicator for evaluation of MS than either fetuin-A or adiponectin. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 465 elderly subjects were selected from the physical examination database. Serum levels of fetuin-A and adiponectin were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, linear regression and logistic regression analysis were adopted to estimate the correlations of fetuin-A, adiponectin and F/A ratio with MS and its components, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to evaluate the predictive values of the aforesaid indices. RESULTS: Compared with fetuin-A or adiponectin, F/A ratio was significantly associated with all the components of MS, and this correlation was significant even after adjusting potential confounding factors (P < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis indicated that F/A ratio presented a stronger correlation with incident MS (adjusted OR: 1.466; 95% CI: 1.189-1.808) than fetuin-A (adjusted OR: 1.100; 95% CI: 1.020-1.186) and adiponectin (adjusted OR: 0.760; 95% CI: 0.664-0.871) alone. ROC analysis revealed that F/A ratio achieved a larger area under curve (AUC) than fetuin-A and adiponectin, with their AUC values of 0.755, 0.709 and 0.708, respectively. CONCLUSION: F/A ratio is a more sensitive index for evaluating MS than either fetuin-A or adiponectin in the elderly.