Authors
Elisabeth Lerchbaum, M.D., Verena Schwetz, M.D., Albrecht Giuliani, M.D., Thomas R. Pieber, M.D., Barbara Obermayer-Pietsch, M.D.
Vol 98, Issue 5, Pages 1318-1325.e1
Abstract
Objective:
To study the association of adrenal and ovarian androgen levels with metabolic parameters in a large cohort of PCOS women.
Design:
Cross-sectional study.
Setting:
Outpatient clinic of an academic hospital.
Patients:
Six hundred twenty-two women with PCOS.
Interventions:
None.
Main outcome measures:
Analysis of the association of endocrine dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) and free testosterone (FT) parameters with metabolic measurements.
Results:
In multivariate adjusted logistic regression analyses, OR for insulin resistance was significantly higher (4.42 (2.26-8.67)) for PCOS women with elevated FT levels compared to women with normal DHEAS and FT levels (reference group). We found no significant differences when PCOS women with elevated DHEAS or a combined elevation of DHEAS and FT levels were compared to the reference group (p>0.05). PCOS women with high DHEAS/FT-ratios had a more beneficial metabolic profile compared to women with low DHEAS/FT-ratios. In multivariate adjusted binary logistic regression analyses, we found a significantly lower risk for insulin resistance in PCOS women in the highest DHEAS/FT-ratio quartile compared to PCOS women in the lowest quartile (OR 0.35 (0.14-0.89)).
Conclusions:
Our results suggest that the distinction between adrenal and ovarian hyperandrogenism is important when evaluating metabolic risk in PCOS.
Read the full text at: http://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(12)01792-X/fulltext
Please sign in or register for FREE
Your Fertility and Sterility Dialog login information is not the same as your ASRM or EES credentials. Users must create a separate account to comment or interact on the Dialog.