In order to encourage the development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the state has set up a spe-cial project and funds to construct the National TCM Clinical Research Base. The goal is to establish a regular line with the development of TCM clinical research and innovation platform gradually. Ensuring the project proceeds suc-cessfully, we have taken a series of initiatives that include the personnel training, the establishment of the network center, medical diagnostic centre, imaging centre, ethical platform and the laboratory. Also, we have explored the operation mode which matches the construction. During the process of construction, we have found that four elements are particularly important for the base development, which are top-level design, leadershipˊs attention, financial sup-port, solidarity and cooperation.

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics of metabolically healthy obese ( MHO) individuals, and to explore the risk of progression into metabolic disorders after 3 years. Methods A total of 3943 residents in Jining City were evaluated twice from February 2012 to August 2015, and 3766 individuals were enrolled excluding those with missing data. Of the subjects, 875 subjects were screened as metabolic normal population, which were divided into MHO(n = 127), metabolically healthy overweight (MHOW, n = 386), and metabolically healthy normal weight ( MHNW, n = 362) groups. T test, x2 test, and logistic regression analysis were used for data analysis. Results The incidence of MHO was 11. 63％ (127 / 1092) in obesity, and the proportion of MHO in females was higher than that in males(13. 91％ vs 7. 82％ , P<0. 05). Compared with MHNW group, the levels of HbA1C , fasting insulin, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol ( LDL-C), triglyceride ( TG), glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), systolic blood pressure(SBP), diastolic blood pressure(DBP), and waist circumference(WC) were higher in MHO while glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) were lower(all P<0. 05); and fasting insulin, LDL-C, TG, GGT, SBP, WC were higher in MHOW while HDL-C was lower (all P<0. 05). The levels of fasting insulin, TG, SBP, WC were higher in MHO while GFR and HDL-C were lower compared with MHOW(all P<0. 05). Following up for 3 years, the incidences of dyslipidemia in MHNW, MHOW, and MHO were 17. 96％ (65 / 362), 32. 90％ (127 / 386), 42. 52％ (54 / 127), respectively, with significant difference among three groups(P<0. 05). The incidences of hyperglycemia in the three groups were 20. 17％ (73 / 362), 22. 80％(88 / 386), 26. 77％ (34 / 127), respectively, without significant difference among groups ( all P > 0. 05). After adjustment for some factors including sex, age, fasting insulin, glutamic pyruvic transaminase, glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, GGT, and creatinine, the risks of dyslipidemia in MHO ( OR = 2. 193, 95％ CI 1. 359-3. 539, P<0. 05) and MHOW(OR= 1. 705, 95％ CI 1. 190-2. 443, P<0. 05) were significantly increased as compared with MHNW. Conclusion Compared with MHNW individuals, MHOW/ MHO individuals show an obviously different clinical feature as well as with higher risks of dyslipidemia after 3 years.

BACKGROUNDInsulin resistance (IR) plays an important pathophysiological role in the development of diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. Moreover, IR can occur even in non-obese people without diabetes. However, direct detection of IR is complicated. In order to find a simple surrogate marker of IR early in non-obese people, we investigate the association of commonly-used biochemical markers (liver enzymes and lipid profiles) with IR in urban middle-aged and older non-obese Chinese without diabetes.

METHODSThis cross-sectional study included 1 987 subjects (1 473 women). Fasting blood samples were collected for measurement of glucose, insulin, liver enzymes, lipid profiles and creatinine. Subjects whose homeostasis model of assessment-IR (HOMA-IR) index values exceeded the 75th percentile (2.67 for women and 2.48 for men) of the population were considered to have IR. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to compare the power of potential markers in identifying IR.

RESULTSTriglycerides (TG) and ratio of TG to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG/HDL-C) discriminated IR better than other indexes for both sexes; areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves (AUC) values were 0.770 (95% confidence interval 0.733-0.807) and 0.772 (0.736-0.809), respectively, for women and 0.754 (0.664-0.844) and 0.756 (0.672-0.840), respectively, for men. To identify IR, the optimal cut-offs for TG and TG/HDL-C ratio were 1.315 mmol/L (sensitivity 74.3%, specificity 71.0%) and 0.873 (sensitivity 70.1%, specificity 73.4%), respectively, for women, and 1.275 mmol/L (sensitivity 66.7%, specificity 74.4%) and 0.812 (sensitivity 75.8%, specificity 69.2%), respectively, for men.

CONCLUSIONTG and TG/HDL-C ratio could be used to identify IR in urban middle-aged and older non-obese Chinese without diabetes.

Aged ; Alanine Transaminase ; blood ; Aspartate Aminotransferases ; blood ; Cholesterol, HDL ; blood ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Diabetes Mellitus ; blood ; Female ; Humans ; Insulin Resistance ; physiology ; Liver ; enzymology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Triglycerides ; blood