Dalia Abu Alhaija

Abstract. Irisin affects obesity and other cardiometabolic syndrome (CMS) risk factors, but the exact mechanism is uncertain, and the connection between irisin and visceral adiposity index (VAI) has not been evaluated. Methods: We studied 300 Jordanian adults, including 100 obese with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), 100 obese without T2DM, and 100 normal-weight, non-diabetic individuals with a 1:1 sex ratio. A standard protocol was followed: (1) To measure obesity indices including weight, height, waist circumference (WC), and hip circumference (HC), as well as systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure, (2) To determine circulating irisin, fasting glucose (FBG), and lipid profile, (3) To calculate body mass index (BMI), visceral adiposity index (VAI), waist-hip ratio (WHpR), and waist-height ratio (WHtR). CMS factors were evaluated statistically using the Rock curve test (AUC). Regardless, sex, irisin (mg/dl) was significantly different (p˂0.01) between groups, with the lowest value for the obese with T2DM compared to obese and normal groups (136.617, 234.396, and 299.270, respectively). VAI was significantly higher (p˂0.01) in obese with T2DM (7.536) than those of obese (6.148) and normal (6.153) groups. All studied obesity indices positively correlated (p˂0.01) with SBP, DBP, FBG, and blood triglycerides and negatively correlated (p˂0.01) with irisin, whereas WHpR negatively correlated (p˂0.01) with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. WC had the highest AUC (0.781), followed by irisin (0.770), BMI (0.775), WHtR (0.748), WHpR (0.717), and VAI had the weakest value (0.679). Conclusion: Irisin shows promise as a predictive biomarker for identifying individuals with or at risk of developing CMS, whereas VAI exhibits the weakest predictor among obesity indices.​​