Correlation of serum leptin levels with anthropometric and metabolic parameters and biochemical liver function in Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection

Table 1 Demographic characteristics in patients with HCV infection and controls (mean±SD).

	Patients	Controls	t	P
Number (male/female)	25/17	18/12	0.0021	0.968
Age (yr)	44.93±14.35	39.43±12.33	1.696	0.094
Height (m)	1.67±0.08	1.66±0.07	0.925	0.358
Weight (kg)	64.86±15.08	64.00±9.18	0.312	0.756
WC (cm)	81.88±9.59	81.45±12.97	0.137	0.892
HC (cm)	94.25±8.46	94.00±7.92	0.084	0.933
BMI (kg/m2)	22.94±4.59	23.14±3.09	0.225	0.822
WHR	0.87±0.74	0.87±0.11	0.220	0.827
Body fat (%)	26.21±7.63	24.96±7.25	0.714	0.478

WC: waist circumference, HC: hip circumference, BMI: body mass index, WHR: waist-to-hip circumference ratio, body fat (%): percent of body fat, ¹χ² test.

Table 2 Comparison of serum leptin levels between patients with HCV infection and controls (mean±SD).

	Patients2	Controls3	F	P
No. (male/female)	25/17	18/12	0.0021	0.968
Male	3.58±2.06	1.44±1.06	17.269	<0.001
Female	9.13±3.59	6.83±3.23	4.002	0.056
Total	5.83±3.89	3.59±3.44	5.610	0.021

¹χ² test,

²F = 9.341, P = 0.005, male vs female;

³F = 16.080, P<0.001, male vs female.

Table 3 Demographic, anthropometric, biochemical, and virological characteristics in chronic HCV-infected patients at different clinical stages (mean±SD).

	Chronic hepatitis C	HCV-associated cirrhosis	HCV-associated HCC
No. (male/female)	17/13	6/4	2/0
Age (yr)	41.03±14.10	53.70±9.93	59.5±12.02
Height (m)	1.68±0.09	1.66±0.05	1.69±0.04
BMI (kg/m2)	23.01±3.39	22.71±7.59	22.97±4.53
WHR	0.86±0.07	0.87±0.08	0.95±0.02
Body fat (%)	25.79±6.52	27.72±11.23	25.05±2.67
LDL (mmol/L)	2.05±1.01	1.41±0.82	2.24±0.19
CHO (mmol/L)	4.09±2.05	3.22±1.08	5.55±1.06
TG (mmol/L)	1.51±1.03	0.81±0.45	1.52±0.47
HDL (mmol/L)	1.13±0.43	1.07±0.40	1.34±0.74
Apo AI (mg/L)	1.36±0.40	1.17±0.44	1.45±0.72
Apo B (mg/L)	0.55±0.27	0.39±0.19	0.71±0.13
ALT (U/L)	93.19±83.08	45.4±35.86	20.5±0.71
AST (U/L)	67.96±50.65	77.70±62.11	48.50±20.51
GGT (U/L)	50.27±41.22	49.80±53.79	92.00±18.38
HCV RNA (copies/mL)	(6.4±12)×104	(6.2±8.9)×104	<80

BMI: body mass index, WHR: waist-to-hip circumference ratio, body fat (%): percent of body fat, LDL: low density lipoprotein, CHO: cholesterol, TG: triglycerides, HDL: high density lipoprotein, Apo AI: apolipoprotein AI, Apo B: apolipoprotein B, ALT: alanine aminotransferase, AST: aspartate aminotransferase, GGT: gamma-glutamyltransferase, HCV RNA: hepatitis C virus ribonucleic acid.

Table 4 Comparisons of serum leptin levels between HCV-infected patients at different clinical stages and controls (mean±SD).

	Chronic hepatitis C	HCV-associated cirrhosis	HCV-associated HCC	Controls
No. (M/F)	17/13	6/4	2/0	18/12
Male	3.75±2.11	2.90±2.33	4.17±0.28	1.44±1.06
Female	9.25±3.61	8.77±4.07		6.83±3.23
Total	6.13±3.941	5.25±4.212	4.17±0.283	3.59±3.44

¹P = 0.003,

²P = 0.752 and

³P = 0.822 compared with controls, respectively. F = 12.454, P = 0.002, F = 0.054, P = 0.823 and F = 6.365, P = 0.018 when comparisons were performed between male and female patients with chronic hepatitis C, HCV-associated cirrhosis and controls.

Table 5 Factors possibly associated with serum leptin levels in patients with chronic HCV infection.

Dependent variable	Independent variables	Standardized coefficients (Beta model)	P
Leptin	Body fat (%)	1.630	<0.001
Leptin	BMI	1.050	0.003
Leptin	Apo B	0.342	0.008

Body fat (%): percent of body fat, BMI: body mass index, Apo B: apolipoprotein B.