TNF and metabolic syndrome: We included age, gender (0=male, 1=female), Smoker (0=NO, 1=Yes), Drinker (0=NO, 1=Yes), thyroid-related hormones, IL-6, IL-15, TNF-α, dyslipidemia (0=NO, 1=Yes), and hypertension (0=NO, 1=Yes) as covariates to control for the influence of other relevant factors on LVM.