This paper is only available as a PDF. To read, Please Download here.
Abstract
In 110 obese, healthy women, a relationship was sought between distribution of body
fat and blood pressure, glucose tolerance, plasma insulin, and fasting plasma lipid
and serum uric acid concentrations. The index of body fat distribution was the ratio
of waist circumference to hips circumference (WHR). The WHR range in this group was
0.5 to 0.99, with a median value of 0.78. Positive, significant correlations were
found between WHR and both systolic and diastolic blood pressure and between WHR and
the total integrated plasma glucose and insulin responses during 4 hr oral glucose
tolerance tests. No relationship was found between WHR and age, the degree of obesity
as defined by the weight-to-height ratio, or concentrations of fasting plasma free
fatty acids, plasma triglyceride, plasma cholesterol, or serum uric acid. Subsequently,
27 women in the highest quartile of the WHR range (0.83 to 0.99) were compared to
28 age- and weight-matched subjects in the lowest quartile of WHR (0.5 to 0.73). Women
in the highest quartile had systolic and diastolic blood pressure as well as total
plasma glucose and insulin responses during glucose tolerance tests that significantly
exceeded mean values of subjects in the lowest quartile. We conclude that in healthy,
obese women, a continuum exists that relates increasing fat accumulation in the upper
body to progressively higher blood pressure, reduced carbohydrate tolerance, and higher
plasma insulin concentrations. These changes occurred independently of age or degree
of obesity in this population.
Abbreviations:
waist-to-hips girth ratio ((WHR)), glucose tolerance test ((GTT)), upper body segment obesity ((UBSO)), lower body segment obesity ((LBSO))To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Translational ResearchAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- A new interpretation of hyperglycemia in obese middle-aged persons.JAMA. 1939; 112: 7
- Excessive insulin response to glucose in obese subjects as measured by immunochemical assay.Diabetes. 1963; 12: 197
- Influence of obesity on the relationships between insulin and triglyceride levels in endogenous hypertriglyceridemia.Diabetes. 1971; 20: 664
- Ketosis, weight loss, uric acid and nitrogen balance in obese women fed single nutrients at a low calorie level.Metabolism. 1969; 18: 193
- Overweight and hypertension. A review.Circulation. 1969; 39: 403
- The degree of masculine differentiation of obesities: a factor determining predisposition to diabetes, atherosclerosis, gout and uric calculus disease.Am J Clin Nutr. 1956; 4: 20
- The relationship between serum triglycerides and skinfold thickness in obese subjects.Ann NY Acad Sci. 1965; 131: 673
- Difference in diabetic and non-diabetic fat distribution patterns by skinfold measurements.Diabetes. 1969; 18: 478
- Relationships of obesity to diabetes: influence of obesity level and body fat distribution.Prev Med. 1983; 12: 351
- Relationship of body fat distribution to metabolic complications of obesity.J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1982; 54: 254
- The use and interpretation of ponderal index and other weight/height ratios in epidemiological studies.J Chronic Dis. 1970; 23: 93
- Colorimetric determinations of free fatty acids in biological fluids.J Lipid Res. 1965; 6: 16
- Micromethod for the direct determination of serum triglycerides.J Lab Clin Med. 1957; 50: 152
- Immunoassay of insulin: two antibody system.Diabetes. 1963; 12: 115
- Classification and diagnosis of diabetes mellitus and other categories of glucose intolerance.Diabetes. 1979; 28: 1039
Evans DJ, Hoffmann RG, Kalkhoff RK, and Kissebah AH: Relationship of body fat topography to insulin sensitivity and metabolic profiles in premenopausal obese women. Metabolism (accepted for publication).
- Effects of long-term physical training on body fat, metabolism and blood pressure in obesity.Metabolism. 1979; 28: 649
- The effect of insulin on renal handling of sodium, potassium, calcium and phosphate in man.J Clin Invest. 1975; 55: 845
- Definitions, criteria and prevalence of obesity.in: Bray GA Obesity in America. U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C1979: 20
- Female fat distribution—a photographic and cellularity study.Int J Obesity. 1978; 2: 289
- The insulin receptor: its role in insulin resistance of obesity and diabetes.Diabetes. 1976; 25: 1154
- Clinical features of diabetogenic obesity.in: Vague J Vague PH Diabetes and Obesity. Excerpta Medica Foundation, Amsterdam1979: 101
- Sex steroid influence on triglyceride metabolism.J Clin Invest. 1975; 56: 888
- Relationship of body fat topography and glucose intolerance to androgenic activity in women.J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1983; 57: 304
Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
June 14,
1983
Received:
March 18,
1983
Footnotes
☆This investigation was supported by research grant, AM10305 and Clinical Research Center grant RR00058 from the U.S.P.H.S., Bethesda, Md., and by TOPS Club, Inc., Obesity and Metabolic Research Program, Milwaukee, Wisc.
☆☆Presented in part at the Third International Congress on Obesity, Satellite Symposium No. 4, Dusseldorf, Germany, October 1980.
Identification
Copyright
© 1983 Published by Elsevier Inc.
