[Correlation between hormonal and metabolic profiles in women with polycystic ovary syndrome]

To investigate the sex hormone status of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCO) and to relate this to serum levels of glucose, insulin, lipids and lipoproteins, 90 women with PCO (30 obese: BMI greater than 30 kg/m2; 30 overweight: BMI greater than 25- less than 30 kg/m2; 30 non obese: BMI less than 25 kg/m2) and 60 normal ovulatory women (20 obese; 20 overweight; 20 non obese) were studied. The women with PCO had significantly increased LH, FSH and androgen levels and significantly decreased SHBG levels compared to the normal women. Obese women with PCO had higher concentrations of fasting glucose, fasting insulin, incremental glucose area, incremental insulin area and lipid than overweight and non obese women with PCO and overweight and non obese control subjects, but were similar in obese normal women. There were decreases in high-density lipoproteins levels in both the obese groups (obese PCO and obese control women). Lipid and lipoprotein concentrations did not differ in the obese, overweight and non obese PCO women compared to the normal groups while HDL cholesterol were decreased in obese PCO and obese control women. The correlations between hormone, glucose, insulin, lipid and lipoprotein levels were different among the six groups. Non obese PCO women had: inverse correlations between free testosterone and incremental glucose area (r = -0.5128, P = 0.03); positive correlations between SHBG and alpha-lipoproteins (r = 0.9159, P = 0.001). Non obese normal women had: positive correlations between fasting insulin and total testosterone (r = 0.5272, P = 0.043) and between SHBG and beta-lipoproteins (r = 0.7445, P = 0.014) and LDL cholesterol (r = 0.7360, P = 0.010).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)