Introduction: It is well-known that obesity has a marked effect on many of the routinely
measured laboratory parameters. An obvious example is the serum level of various blood
lipids: hyperlipidemia, hypercholesteremia are often observed in obese people. Our
research aims to provide a more thorough understanding of the effects of obesity on
laboratory parameters, concentrating on every laboratory parameter (not just those
that are already established as being related to obesity) and their correlational
structure. We focus on adolescent population, as they are the most important from
the public health point of view. Material and methods: A cross-sectional clinical
study was performed that included the observation of n=163 male children (aged 14-18),
consisting of healthy volunteers from Hungarian secondary schools and obese patients
treated with E66.9 “Obesity, unspecified” diagnosis (ICD-10). The observation included
the recording of 33 laboratory parameters from blood sample. To explore this database,
we performed Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Factor Analysis (FA) to ease
the understanding on correlations of the laboratory parameters by identifying those
groups of variables that have strong stochastic connection. Such connections between
laboratory parameters were further analyzed by Cluster Analysis (CA). Results: The
applied methods all reveal similar patterns of association between different laboratory
parameters. Variables that are found to be stochastically connected, also share physiologic
similarities. The effects of obesity can also be exposed. Conclusion: Stochastically
connected laboratory parameters – with different physiological interpretation – can
be in fact statistically identified and used to draw conclusions about the multivariate
structure of laboratory results.
