whether the apolipoprotein B/apolipoprotein A-I (apoB/apoA-I) ratio is a promising risk predictor of metabolic
syndrome (MetS) and to determine the optimal cut-offvalue of this ratio in detecting subjects with MetS in aChinese population. A prospective study was conductedusing a representative sample of non-institutionized peoplein Taiwan. A total of 3,343 participants with mean age(±SD) of 39.86 (±15.61) years old were followed up from2002 to 2007. The primary outcome was the incidence ofMetS. The MetS was defined according to a unified criterionestablished by several major organizations. There were462 cases of incident MetS during a mean follow-up periodof 5.26 years. A significantly stepwise increase in theincidence of MetS across quartiles of the apoB/apoA-I ratio
was noted in both sexes after adjustment for potentialconfounders (p for trend \0.001). Compared with thelowest quartile of apoB/apoA-I ratio, participants in thehighest quartile had a significantly higher risk of MetS inboth men [adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 6.29, 95 % confidenceinterval (CI) = 2.79–9.13] and women (adjustedHR = 3.82, 95 % CI = 1.06–6.63). Comparisons ofreceiver operating characteristics curves indicated that thepredictive ability of apoB/apoA-I ratio to detect MetS was
better than conventional lipid ratio measurements. Furthermore,
the optimal cut-off value of apoB/apoA-I ratiofor MetS diagnosis was 0.71 in men and 0.56 in women.These results suggest that an elevated apoB/apoA-I ratiomight constitute a potentially crucial measure linked to therisk of developing MetS
