Objective To compare two systemic inflammatory markers, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and white blood cell count (WBC), as a component of metabolic syndrome (MetS).
Methods Data of hs-CRP and WBC from 2,185 Japanese men and 1,383 Japanese women were examined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for diagnosing MetS and Spearman's correlation coefficients.
Results The area under ROC curve (AUC) of hs-CRP was 0.71 in men and 0.74 in women. The AUC of WBC was 0.65 in men and 0.69 in women. The optimal cutoff point (sensitivity; specificity) of hs-CRP was 0.40 mg/L (0.69; 0.65) in men and 0.35 mg/L (0.67; 0.72) in women. The optimal cutoff point (sensitivity; specificity) of WBC was 5,600/L^-6 (0.61; 0.61) in men and 5,000/L^-6 (0.65; 0.63) in women. Correlations between obesity parameters, blood pressure, and liver function tests were stronger with hs-CRP than with WBC. But, no correlation between MetS-related risk factors was stronger with WBC than with hs-CRP.
Conclusion Hs-CRP is superior to WBC as an inflammatory component of MetS in Japanese. However, WBC may be useful when hs-CRP is not available because WBC is routinely measured in clinical practice.