Ringane MC, Choma SSR, et al. - Findings indicate that the conventional waist circumference cut-off points (94 cm for females and 80 cm for males) that are nowadays employed for metabolic syndrome diagnosis are likely inappropriate in the prediction of an elevated carotid intima-media thickness.

• This cross-sectional study including 1,318 adults aged between 40 and 60 years old, residing in a rural Black population in Limpopo province (69% women and 31% men with a mean age of 53 ± 7 years), was performed to define the optimal waist circumference (WC) cut-off point for the prediction of subclinical cardiovascular disease.

• The highest sensitivity of 57% in female participants was offered by WC at a cut-off value of 95 cm, also the specificity and area under the curve (AUC) were 55% and 0.588, respectively.

• In male participants, an optimum WC cut-off point of 82 cm provided the highest sensitivity and specificity at 72% and 70% respectively, with an AUC of 0.767.