Is Lipid Accumulation Product ( LAP ) , a better obesity index in diagnosing cardiovascular disease ?

Background: It has been shown that low grade inflammatory state is associated with cardiovascular risk. High sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), a nonspecific inflammatory marker has been shown to be increased in metabolic syndrome a risk state for the development of cardiovascular disease. Obesity is a predisposing condition to metabolic syndrome. Therefore, this study was intended to compare the indices available to measure obesity such as BMI and “lipid accumulation product” (LAP) with respect to risk for development of cardiovascular. Methodology: The study design was cross sectional with sample size of 120. Anthropometric measurements (BMI and LAP) and biochemical estimations (blood glucose, lipid profile & hsCRP) were carried out. Results: we compared the values of LAP and BMI with Hs-CRP levels, (the established marker for CVD) the ROC curve for LAP and BMI was of not much difference. But higher values of LAP were significant. The area under the curve of LAP & BMI being 0.70 and 0.74 respectively. The cut off for BMI is 22.94 with Sensitivity of 0.69, Specificity of 0.87& youden index 0.564.The cut off for LAP is 39.70 with Sensitivity of 0.69, Specificity of 0.87 & youden index 0.374 Conclusion: LAP was not able to perform better in comparison to BMI in assessing the risk of cardiovascular disease in our study subjects.