Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To provide an evidence-based assessment of metabolic syndrome, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia in first-degree relatives of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. SETTING: Not applicable. PATIENT(S): Mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers of women with and without PCOS. INTERVENTION(S): An electronic-based search with the use of PubMed from 1960 to June 2015 and cross-checked references of relevant articles. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Metabolic syndrome, hypertension and dyslipidemia, and surrogate markers, including systolic blood pressure (BP), diastolic BP, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides. RESULT(S): Fourteen of 3,346 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Prevalence of the following was significantly increased in relatives of women with PCOS: metabolic syndrome (risk ratio [RR] 1.78 [95% confidence interval 1.37, 2.30] in mothers, 1.43 [1.12, 1.81] in fathers, and 1.50 [1.12, 2.00] in sisters), hypertension (RR 1.93 [1.58, 2.35] in fathers, 2.92 [1.92, 4.45] in sisters), and dyslipidemia (RR 3.86 [2.54, 5.85] in brothers and 1.29 [1.11, 1.50] in fathers). Moreover, systolic BP (mothers, sisters, and brothers), total cholesterol (mothers and sisters), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (sisters), and triglycerides (mothers and sisters) were significantly higher in first-degree relatives of PCOS probands than in controls. CONCLUSION(S): Our results show evidence of clustering for metabolic syndrome, hypertension, and dyslipidemia in mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers of women with PCOS. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPERO 2016 CRD42016048557.