Association of Cornell product with metabolic syndrome in middle-aged people in China

Metabolic syndrome (MS) has attracted much attention worldwide for its harmful effects. Although the Cornell product (CP) and Sokolow-Lyon (SL) voltage are independent and strong risk factors of cardiovascular disease, their associations with MS and the relative strength of these associations are unknown. Therefore, we studied these aspects in a community of middle-aged people.

A total of 1112 community residents aged 40–65 years, among which 169 had IDF (2005)–defined MS (MS group) and 943 did not have MS (NMS group), underwent electrocardiography (ECG) at baseline. A questionnaire survey, physical measurements, laboratory biochemical assessments, urine test, ECG, body fat analysis, and abdominal MRI examination were performed subsequently. Fifty-eight participants had developed MS (new-onset MS group) at the follow-up, while 472 residents had not developed MS over the next year (MS-free group). We compared the CP and SL voltage between these two groups.

In the overall analysis, CP values were higher in the MS group than in the NMS group (p < 0.05), but SL voltage values were not significantly different (p > 0.05). In the gender-stratified multivariate analysis, CP was significantly different in the male and female populations (p < 0.05), but SL voltage was only different in the male population (p = 0.042). After removing hypertension from MS and NMS groups, there was still significant difference in CP value (< 0.05). Thus, CP showed a more pronounced influence. The new-onset MS group showed significantly higher CP values and the changes in CP values than did the MS-free group at baseline and follow-up (p < 0.05), but the changes in SL values were not significant (p > 0.05).

CP values differed significantly between the MS and NMS groups. The new-onset MS group showed higher baseline CP values. Thus, CP is more advantageous than SL voltage in presaging the incidence of MS-related cardiovascular risk.