Association Between Neck Circumference And Metabolic Syndrome In Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Objective: To explore the correlation of neck circumference (NC) with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and metabolic risk factors, and assess the predictive value of NC for MetS in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Methods: : This is a cross-sectional study recruited 633 women diagnosed with PCOS from January 2018 to June 2021. Anthropometric parameters, neck circumference, blood pressure, reproductive hormones, glycemic and lipid profile were measured in all subjects. The definition of MetS adopted in this study was the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria. Results: : Of the 633 subjects, MetS was diagnosed in 177 women (28.0%). PCOS women with larger NC had significantly greater values of body weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), waist to hip ratio (WHR), systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, fasting insulin, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), homeostasis model assessment of β cell function (HOMA-β), triglyceride and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. The prevalence of MetS, hypertention, obesity, central obesity, hyperglycemia and dyslipidaemia was also significantly higher in women with larger NC. Additionally, logistic regression analysis showed that women in the highest quartile of NC had the highest prevalence of MetS (RR=7.14, 95%CI: 1.82-28.01) after adjusting for confounding factors. Furthermore, NC was able to identify MetS in women with PCOS and the optimal cutoff points were 33.0 cm (Youden index = 0.44). The area under the curve (AUC) in predicting MetS by NC was 0.813，which was significantly larger than HC while comparable with BMI and WHR. Conclusions: : Neck circumference was positively and independently correlated with the prevalence of MetS and showed a good predictive ability in women with PCOS. Therefore, NC could be recommended as a simple, stable and highly reproducible measuring method in the routine clinical assessment and long-term management of women with PCOS to screen those at high risk of MetS.