Number of Components of the Metabolic Syndrome; Smoking and Inflammatory Markers

Background: the association between inflammatory markers and the combination of the smoking status plus a number of components of the metabolic syndrome was not fully evaluated in male japanese subjects. objectives: to demonstrate the association between inflammatory markers and the number of components of the metabolic syndrome by considering smoking status. patients and methods: a total of 3,017 male subjects (1,047 current smokers, 1,970 non-smokers) were included. metabolic syndrome (mets) was defined by the criteria of the national cholesterol education program adult treatment panel iii. the smoking status was categorized in a binary manner into current smokers or non-smokers. results: the geometric mean value of the serum crp increased linearly as the number of components of mets increased (p < 0.05). in contrast, the mean values of the total wbc, neutrophil, lymphocyte and monocyte counts showed peak values when the number of mets components was 3 or 4. the log-transformed serum crp levels and the wbc counts were significantly correlated with one another (p < 0.001), but pearson’s correlation coefficient was under 0.3 for current smokers. conclusions: among several inflammatory markers, the serum crp predominantly changed linearly as the number of mets increased regardless of smoking status.