OBJECTIVE -It is clinically important to find noninvasive markers of insulin resistance and hyperproinsulinemia because they both predict cardiovascular and diabetes risk. Sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD) or "supine abdominal height" is a simple anthropometric measure previously shown to predict mortality in men, but its association with insulin resistance and hyperproinsulinemia is unknown.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS-In a common high-risk group of 59 moderately obese men (aged 35-65 years, BMI 32.6 Ϯ 2.3 kg/m 2 ), we determined anthropometry (SAD, BMI, waist girth, and waist-to-hip ratio [WHR]); insulin sensitivity (euglycemichyperinsulinemic clamp); and plasma concentrations of intact proinsulin, specific insulin, Cpeptide, glucose, and serum IGF binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1). To compare SAD with other anthropometric measures, univariate and multiple regression analyses were used to determine correlations between anthropometric and metabolic variables.RESULTS -SAD showed stronger correlations to all measured metabolic variables, including insulin sensitivity, than BMI, waist girth, and WHR. SAD explained the largest degree of variation in insulin sensitivity (R 2 ϭ 0.38, P Ͻ 0.0001) compared with other anthropometric measures. In multiple regression analyses, including all anthropometric measures, SAD was the only independent anthropometric predictor of insulin resistance (P Ͻ 0.001) and hyperproinsulinemia (P Ͻ 0.001).CONCLUSIONS -In obese men, SAD seems to be a better correlate of insulin resistance and hyperproinsulinemia (i.e., cardiovascular risk) than other anthropometric measures. In overweight and obese individuals, SAD could represent a simple, cheap, and noninvasive tool that could identify the most insulin resistant in both the clinic and clinical trials evaluating insulin sensitizers. These results need confirmation in larger studies that also include women and lean subjects.
Diabetes Care 27:2041-2046, 2004M ore than half of adult Americans are overweight or obese (1). Many, but far from all of those subjects, will suffer from obesity-related diseases. Insulin resistance may be the key factor in obesity that contributes to increased health risk, as the more insulin resistant an individual, the more likely they are to develop diabetes and cardiovascular disease (2-4). Therefore, identification of insulin resistance also is important in moderately obese subjects.Recently, elevated intact proinsulin, reflecting both insulin resistance and -cell dysfunction (5), has emerged as an independent predictor of type 2 diabetes (5-7) and cardiovascular mortality (8,9). However, a simple clinical surrogate marker for hyperproinsulinemia is still to be found.McLaughlin and Reaven (10) recently highlighted the need for a useful tool to identify insulin resistance, as direct measures of insulin resistance are unfeasible for clinical use. While fasting insulin has shown to be a useful estimate of insulin resistance, it is invasive and the lack of standardized assays limits its use (11). Alternatively, triglycerid...