Venu Gopal Jonnalagadda1, Shravan Kumar Uppulapu2. 1. Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Mirza, Assam, India Email gopalvenu63@gmail.com. 2. Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Mirza, Assam, India.
Dear editorWe have read the article “Testosterone, obesity, and waist circumference as determinants of metabolic syndrome in Saudi women” by Fatani et al with great interest.1As per National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III guidelines, metabolic syndrome (MS) is diagnosed on the basis of the presence of three or more of the following five criteria: waist circumference (WC) over 40 inches (men) or 35 inches (women), fasting triglyceride (TG) level over 150 mg/ dL, blood pressure (BP) over 130/85 mmHg, fasting blood sugar over 100 mg/dL, and fasting high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol level <40 mg/dL (men) or 50 mg/dL (women).2Moreover, as per new JNC-8 guidelines, hypertension is defined as BP ≥140/90 mmHg, and in general, SBP value is more than DBP.3 However, in the aforementioned article, SBP was presented as 70.19±3.66 in the control group and 106.62±5.67 in the MS group, and DBP was presented as 113.27±1.17 in the control group and 134.58±2.08 mmHg in the MS group. Specifically, increased DBP is secondary to another disorder of kidney or sleep apnea syndrome and thyroid.4We would be highly obliged for your kind consideration of the abovementioned clarification in your article to avoid discrepancy and highlight a clear idea of the relationship between testosterone, obesity, and WC in the prediction of MS.