MPO and metabolic syndrome: At baseline MetS+ patients had significantly higher plasma ox-LDL levels when compared to the MetS-group (64.26 ± 2.2 versus 57.08 ± 1.5 U/L, P = 0.010) and LC-group (64.26 ± 2.2 versus 52.21 ± 3.0 U/L, P = 0.002), whereas circulating levels of MPO were significantly higher in obese patients (with or without MetS) when compared with the LC-group (330.79 ± 45.0 and 375.28 ± 65.1 versus 172.72 ± 22.0 pM, P = 0.015).