More evidence against concept of "metabolic syndrome"

MAY 20, 2010 | Sue Hughes

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Hamilton, ON - Patients with metabolic syndrome are no more at risk of future MI than those with diabetes or hypertension alone, a new study suggests [1].

The study, published in the May 25, 2010 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, was conducted by a group led by Dr Andrew Mente (McMaster University, Hamilton, ON).

Mente commented to heartwire: "Our study examined whether we need to look at metabolic syndrome as a distinct entity or whether we should instead be focusing on the individual risk factors, and we found that the individual risk-factor approach is probably best. The results strongly suggest that we should be treating the individual risk factors rather than metabolic syndrome."

The results strongly suggest that we should be treating the individual risk factors rather than metabolic syndrome.

In the paper, the researchers explain that the common clustering of metabolic abnormalities, including abdominal obesity, elevated glucose, abnormal lipids, and elevated blood pressure is often referred to as the metabolic syndrome. While metabolic syndrome is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease, it is not known whether this risk is greater than that conferred by its constituent components, and the value of classifying subjects with metabolic syndrome has recently been called into question.

To investigate this issue, Mente et al analyzed data from the INTERHEART study, a case-control study of incident acute MI that involved 12 297 cases and 14 606 controls from 52 countries. They classified the study participants using the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria for metabolic syndrome, and their risks for MI were compared with the individual metabolic-syndrome component factors. Results showed that metabolic syndrome was associated with a two- to three-times increased risk of MI, but the same risk was conferred by having either hypertension or diabetes alone./.../