NPPB and hematocrit: The ROC analysis was applied between obese NT and pre-HT patients and showed that there was a high sensitivity and specificity for the predictive validity of aldosterone (92.307 % sensitivity and 91.7 % specificity; best cut off value >138.5 ng/dl; Fig. 2a), cortisol (92.307 % sensitivity and 83.4 %, specificity, best cut off value >6.4 ng/dl; Fig. 2b), NT-pro BNP (84.61 % sensitivity and 83.4 % specificity; best cut off value >445.5 pg/ml; Fig. 2c) in differentiating between NT group vs pre-HT metabolic syndrome groups.