The Metabolic Syndrome
Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: Introduction The metabolic syndrome - the clustering of abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia and hypertension - is a major public health challenge worldwide.1,2 The metabolic syndrome is not benign; it is associated with a substantially elevated risk of type 2 diabetes (5-fold) and of cardiovascular disease (CVD) (2-3-fold),1 and its increasing prevalence could possibly reverse the gains made through recent declining CVD mortality. The metabolic syndrome is not a new condition. It was first described in the 1920s by Kylin, a Swedish physician, as the association of hypertension, hyperglycemia and gout.3 In the 1940s, attention was drawn to upper body adiposity (android or male-type obesity) as the obesity phenotype commonly associated with type 2 diabetes and CVD.4 This constellation of CVD risk factors has been given a number of names, including "deadly quartet", "syndrome X", and "insulin resistance syndrome",1 but "metabolic syndrome" is likely to hold sway for the foreseeable future. Just as the metabolic syndrome has borne a variety of different names, numerous definitions have also surfaced. The World Health Organization definition,5 and two others, developed by the European Group for the Study of Insulin Resistance6 and the National Cholesterol Education Program - Third Adult Treatment Panel (ATP III),7 have been the main ones in use. Each of these agreed on the core components of obesity, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia and hypertension. However, the definitions differ in the cut-points used for each component, and the way in which the components are combined, leading to considerable confusion.1 The confusion has been particularly apparent in attempts to compare the burden in different populations, where the use of different definitions has seriously hampered the ability to make comparisons between and within communities.1,2
Author: Masoumeh Sadeghi
Institution: Isfahan University of Medical Sciences
Language: English
Subfield: Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3022153023