Clinic-morphological indicators to diagnose hypertriglycedemia the importance of mid abdominal circumference as a screening tool

Objective: To find a cut off level of mid abdominal circumference in North Indian subjects to use as a predictive tool for diagnosing individuals with raised serum triglyceride levels. Methods: This was a cross-sectional hospital based study conducted over a period of three years at Vivekananda Polyclinic and Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India. Not known cases of dyslipedimia were included in this study attending in the out-patient clinic of the hospital. The subjects were screened for overnight fasting (for 8 to 12 hrs) levels of triglycerides after asking them to be on a normal diet for three days. A total of 857 subjects were included in the study. Results: One forth (25%) of the subjects were in the age group 40-49 years. The mean age was 54.57 years. More than half (53.3%) of the subjects were males and were vegetarian (63%). Less than one third (28.6%) of the subjects were alcoholic and 39% were smokers. The mean abdominal girth was 106.25 (±11.07) cms and height was 161.46 (±6.68). However, average weight was 69.38 (±9.66) kg and TG level was 205.08 (±55.80). Linear regression analysis showed that the cut off of 92 cms was obtained for male and 93 cms for females. Above this abdominal girth, an increased TG levels will be with a high rate of sensitivity and specificity for both the sexes.