The adiponectin/leptin ratio and metabolic syndrome in healthy korean adult males.

Insulin resistance plays an important role in the pathogenesis of obesity, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Therefore, quantitative measurements of insulin resistance are clinically meaningful and may help researchers to better understand the etiologies of this disease. The best-established methods of quantitative measurement of insulin resistance are the hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp, minimal model assessment and homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) methods [1]. However, given the dominant role of obesity in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance, plasma leptin and adiponectin levels, and the ratio of these two best-characterized adipocytokines, have been suggested as parameters to assess insulin resistance [2].