Efficacy of sex hormone-binding globulin on predicting metabolic syndrome in newly diagnosed and untreated patients with polycystic ovary syndrome

Purpose The aims of this study were to investigate the correlation of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and the components of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and explore the ability of SHBG to predict MetS in newly diagnosed and untreated patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Methods Ninety-eight newly diagnosed and untreated patients with PCOS and 37 healthy volunteers were recruited. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to explore the best cutoff values of SHBG for predicting that the patients with PCOS would fulfill at least one abnormal index of MetS components, at least two abnormal indexes of MetS components, or MetS. Results The numbers of patients with PCOS who fulfilled none, one, or two of the MetS criteria items and MetS were 33, 31, 19, and 15, respectively. SHBG was negatively correlated with BMI (r = - 0.615,P < 0.001), systolic blood pressure (SBP) (r = - 0371,P < 0.001), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (r = - 0.285,P = 0.004), triglycerides (TG) (r = - 0.431,P < 0.001), fasting serum insulin (I-0) (r = - 0.549,P < 0.001), HOMA-IR (r = - 0.557,P < 0.001), and plasma glucose 2 h after glucose load (G(120)) (r = - 0.337,P < 0.001) and positively correlated with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (r = 0.629,P < 0.001) in patients with PCOS. The optimal cutoff value of SHBG for predicting MetS in patients with PCOS was 21.3 nmol/L, with a sensitivity of 100.0% (95% CI 78.0-100.0%) and specificity of 85.12% (95% CI 77.5-90.9%). Conclusions Sixty-five patients had varying degrees of metabolic abnormalities, accounting for 66.3% of the patients with PCOS. SHBG was associated with metabolic indexes, including BMI, SBP, DBP, TG, I-0, HOMA-IR, G(120), and HDL-C, and can therefore be employed as a useful index for MetS prediction.