Role of Cystatin-C in assessing the cardiovascular risk among overweight and obese individuals

Background: Cystatin C is a naturally occurring protease inhibitor that protects the host tissue from Cysteine protease Cathepsins, which is a pro-atherogenic factor. Cystatin C is a reliable marker of renal functions and its plasma concentration is dependent completely on Glomerular Filtration Rate, and has emerged as a biomarker of cardiovascular risk . The main objective of present study is to estimate the serum levels of Cystatin C in individuals with normal BMI, overweight and obese, aged between 20 and 39 years and to correlate the levels of serum Cystatin C with cardiovascular risk factors. Materials and Methods: The study population was taken from healthy volunteers of Mysore city, aged between 20 and 39 years of either sex. The study population was divided into three groups based on BMI. The sample size in each group was 20. Fasting serum sample was analyzed for glucose, HDL cholesterol, creatinine by enzymatic method and serum Cystatin C by immunoturbidimetric method using autoanalyser. Results: The serum Cystatin C levels was significantly increased in overweight and obese groups, P value <0.001. The mean serum Cystatin C levels in normal BMI group was 0.7 ± 0.03, in overweight group 0.91 ± 0.009 and in obese group was 1.15 ± 0.09. In the study, serum Cystatin C showed a positive correlation with serum total cholesterol ( r = 0.71), LDL cholesterol ( r = 0.69), total CHOL: HDL ( r = 0.77), HDL: LDL ( r = 0.75), serum glucose ( r = 0.61) and negative correlation with serum HDL ( r = -0.52). Conclusion: Serum Cystatin C can serve as a good predictive marker of preclinical cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease in overweight and obese individuals.