Abstract
Backgroung. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common disorder affecting reproductive age women and is a cluster of endocrine and metabolic alterations ranging from impaired ovulation and androgen excess to abdominal obesity and metabolic syndrome leading to increased cardiovascular risk profile. Aim. To perform a meta-analysis on the effect of PCOS on surrogate markers of atherosclerosis, namely intima media thickness (IMT), flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and pulse wave velocity (PWV) and to run a meta-regression on the potential determinants of preclinical atherosclerosis. Methods. A search through Pubmed/Medline and ISI-web of knowledge retrieved 90 studies that were used for meta-analysis. Selected outcomes were IMT (n=6199), FMD (n=3090), and PWV (n=2477) while age, BMI, waist circumference, total testosterone, free androgen index (FAI), total-, HDL- and LDL-cholesterol, HOMA-index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure were used for meta-regression analysis. Results. Random effect meta-analysis showed that IMT was significantly increased (ES 0.47, 95% C.I. 0.64 to 0.30, p<0.0001), FMD was significantly impaired (ES -0.92, 95% C.I. -0.69 to -1.15, p<0.0001) and PWV was significantly increased (ES 0.28, 95% C.I. 0.48 to 0.08, p=0.006) in PCOS compared to controls. Meta-regression analysis showed that FMD was positively correlated with FAI (p=0.018) while negative correlations were found between Effect Size (IMT) and BMI (p=0.02), waist circumference (p=0.05) and total cholesterol (p=0.02). Conclusions. This meta-analysis shows a clear effect of PCOS on all markers of preclinical atherosclerosis (IMT, FMD and PWV). Heterogeneity of results is explained in part by the androgen status that was positively linked to impairment of FMD while increasing of anthropometric and metabolic variables (waist, BMI and total cholesterol) seem to overcome PCOS on preclinical atherosclerosis.