ORIGINAL ARTICLE Utility of ApoB/ApoA1 Ratio for the Prediction of Cardiovascular Risk in Children with Metabolic Syndrome Senay Savas Erdeve & Enver Simsek & Yildiz Dallar & Zeynep Biyikli Received: 14 February 2010 / Accepted: 5 May 2010 / Published online: 6 October 2010 # Dr. K C Chaudhuri Foundation 2010 Abstract Objective To assess whether apoB/apoA1 ratio is associat- ed or not with metabolic syndrome in obese children. Methods A 198 obese children and 41 healthy control subjects were enrolled in a cross-sectional study. The apoB/ apoA1 ratio and other metabolic sydrome components in obese children with/without metabolic syndrome were compared to healthy controls. Results The apoA1 level did not show significant difference (p =0.664) but apoB level (p =0.000) and apoB/apoA1 ratio (p =0.001) were significantly higher in obese group than in control group. Also, the apoB/apoA1 ratio was significantly higher in obese children with metabolic syndrome when compared to obese children without metabolic syndrome (p =0.007) and showed positive correlation with triglyceride (r =0.404, p =0.000) and negative correlation with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (r = -0.593, p =0.000). Conclusions The apoB/apoA1 ratio is associated with metabolic syndrome in obese children. An elevated apoB/apoA1 ratio may constitute an important feature of the metabolic syndrome. There is a need for long term follow-up studies concerning cardiovascular risk in obese children with metabolic syndrome and high apoB/ apoA1 ratio. Keywords Apolipoprotein AI . Apolipoprotein B . Apolipoprotein B/Apolipoprotein AI ratio . Child . Metabolic syndrome Introductıon Metabolic syndrome comprises of central obesity, dyslipi- demia, hypertension and hyperglycemia. Individuals with the metabolic syndrome have an increased risk of cardio- vascular morbidity and mortality [1–3]. Apolipoproteins are important structural and functional proteins in lipoprotein particles, which transport lipids. Apolipoproteins regulate the synthesis and metabolism of lipoprotein particles and in addition stabilize their structure [4]. Apolipoprotein B (ApoB) is almost the only protein component of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and is also a component of chylomicrons, very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C), lipoprotein(a), and meta- bolic remnants of VLDL-C and chylomicrons [5, 6]. The plasma value of apoB reflects the total number of cholesterol- containing (and to some degree, triglyceride (TG) containing) particles, thus indicating the number of potentially athero- genic lipoproteins. Conversely, apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1) is S. Savas Erdeve (*) Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ulusoy 312 City No: 16 B46, Cayyolu, 06830 Ankara, Turkey e-mail: senaysavas@yahoo.com E. Simsek Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, Department of Pediatrics, Osmangazi University School of Medicine, Konuralp-Duzce, Turkey Y. Dallar Department of Pediatrics, Ankara Research and Training Hospital, Ankara, Turkey Z. Biyikli Department of Biostatistics, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey Indian J Pediatr (2010) 77:1261–1265 DOI 10.1007/s12098-010-0217-8