Search

The obesity epidemic is a global concern nowadays since obesity is a major risk factor that can cause many serious diseases. A high risk of developing diseases in an obese person primarily occurs due to metabolic disorders. As a rule, dyslipidemia acts as an early sign of metabolic disorders in case of obesity. Our research goal was to compare informative value of body mass index (BMI) and lipid accumulation product (LAP) for assessing atherogenic risks in lipid profile. Two thousand and four hundred people aged 20–60 years took part in our study. We determined participants’ anthropometric and clinical indicators and estimated lipid levels in blood serum. As expected, LAP values had a strong correlation with BMI values. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient for LAP and BMI values amounted to 0.73 (< 0.001) in men (n = 1168) and 0.77 (< 0.001) in women (n = 1232). However, when we estimated agreement between these two indicators using Cohen’s Kappa coefficient, we established that this agreement between LAP and BMI values was rather low (0.35 for men and 0.39 for women). Having compared samplings with quartiles that differed as per LAP and BMI values, we detected that lipid profiles tended to be more atherogenic in people with LAP values being higher than BMI values. Given this established discordance in the quartiles, higher LAP values are associated with atherogenicity of lipid profile to a greater extent than values of BMI, the conventional obesity indicator. Using solely BMI to diagnose obesity may result in underestimating metabolic disorders in the body. To assess obesity and metabolic health correctly, it is advisable to determine LAP value together with traditional obesity indexes.

Obesity is a grave medical and social problem causing significant hazards for human health due to frequent occurrence of grave concomitant diseases. Visceral obesity is considered to be the most hazardous. Contemporary diagnostics which allows to reveal visceral obesity both during screening examinations of people who are considered to be conditionally healthy and in patients who suffer from cardiovascular diseases is becoming a very promising trend both in primary and secondary prevention. The review focuses on an up-to-date marker used to detect visceral obesity, namely, lipid accumulation product or LAP. This index was first introduced by Kahn H.S. in 2005 and is calculated on the basis of two variables, waist circumference (cm) and fasting concentration of triglycerides (mmol/l). When a biochemical and an anthropometric parameter are applied simultaneously to calculate LAP, it allows not only to assess how fats are distributed in a body but also to reflect functional state of fat tissues. LAP index is widely used as a marker showing there are metabolic disorders in a body (metabolic syndrome, diabetes, resistance to insulin, or nonalcoholic fatty liver disease) and as a cardiovascular diseases predictor. Besides, LAP index, when used to identify obesity phenotype, allows to assign people with overweight into a "metabolically healthy" category or "metabolically ill" one and to reveal patients suffering from metabolic obesity among people with normal body weight. A lot of research revealed that LAP index had a very good diagnostic and predictive potential as regards metabolic and cardiovascular diseases and was a more precise marker of cardio-metabolic risks than conventional anthropometric parameters. The review highlights LAP value ranges, its sex and age peculiarities, as well as a character and an extent to which LAP values change in case of certain diseases. It also dwells on advantages and drawbacks of LAP practical application.