ALB and metabolic syndrome: According to the WHO criteria, a diagnosis of MetS is made when a patient presents at least one measure of IR along with two additional risk factors: abdominal obesity (male WHR > 0.9, female WHR > 0.85; and/or body mass index, BMI, >30 kg/m2); dyslipidemia (male HDL-C < 35 mg/dL, female HDL-C < 39 mg/dL; TG ≥ 150 mg/dL); elevated BP (systolic, SBP ≥ 140 mmHg or diastolic, DBP ≥ 90 mmHg or treatment for hypertension, HTN); and microalbuminuria (urinary albumin excretion rate > 20 μg/min or albumin/creatinine ratio > 30 mg/g) [22,24].