Objective: In order to characterize the association between metabolic syndrome (MS) and inflammation, this study has focused on a delineation of the relationship existing between white blood cell (WBC) counts and MS, as defined by the International Diabetes Federation.
Method: A total of 3,279 non-alcoholic, non-smoking adult women from the 1998 Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey (KNHNS) were included in this analysis. The KNHNS is a cross-sectional health survey taken with a nationally representative sample of the Korean population. Trained interviewers conducted interview, anthropometric, blood pressure and laboratory tests measurement.
Results: Waist circumference, triglycerides (TG), and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) were found to be increased (p for linearity = 0.0491 in waist circumference; < 0.0001 in TG; 0.0002 in FPG) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was shown to decrease, with increases in the WBC count (p for linearity = 0.0225). Subjects with lower HDL-C, higher TG, and higher FPG also evidenced higher WBC counts (P = 0.0006 in HDL cholesterol; P < 0.0001 in TG; P = 0.0051 in FPG). The risk for clustered MS components was increased along with increasing WBC counts (P for trend < 0.001). WBC counts were higher in MS patients than in non-MS person after adjustments were made for age (P = 0.00008).
Conclusions: WBC counts were elevated in female MS subjects. This result suggests that increased WBC counts, even within a clinically normal range, might constitute another feature of MS, and might potentially prove useful as an indicator of cardiovascular risk.

Keywords: International Diabetes Federation (IDF), Metabolic syndrome, White blood cell