CRP and metabolic syndrome: Serum C-reactive protein (CRP) is a marker of systemic inflammation, and is elevated in the presence of chronic conditions, including cardiovascular diseases (CVD) [9,10], obesity [11], type 2 diabetes [12], and several components of the metabolic syndrome [10,13], including high blood pressure [14], high waist circumference [15], fasting blood glucose [16,17,18], low serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and raised triacylglycerol [19].