01 Mar Metabolic Syndrome Severity Confers Greater Cardiovascular Risk

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. DeBoer

Mark D. DeBoer, MD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Pediatric Endocrinology
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22908

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Worldwide there remains a need for accurate prediction of cardiovascular disease. One such predictor is the metabolic syndrome, a cluster of individual risk factors including central obesity, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, and high fasting glucose. Metabolic Syndrome is usually diagnosed using set criteria, where a person is diagnosed if he or she has abnormalities in at least 3 of the individual components. Using these criteria, someone with MetS (compared to without MetS) has a >50% greater chance of developing cardiovascular disease over the ensuing 10 years. The problem is that prior studies showed that having MetS did not increase risk above that seen for having the abnormalities in the individual risk factors themselves.

Our study used a continuous MetS severity score that we derived previously and assessed this score as a predictor of future cardiovascular disease in two large cohorts. We found that even when analyzed with abnormalities in the individual Metabolic Syndrome components, higher levels of the MetS severity score conferred higher risk for cardiovascular disease. This suggests the potential for following this score in individuals over time to identify those at higher risk for future cardiovascular disease.

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: The severity of Metabolic Syndrome is linked to risk for cardiovascular disease beyond the risk from its individual components—potentially related to underlying processes that drive the clustering of these abnormalities in MetS. This study suggests the potential to follow Metabolic Syndrome severity over time as a risk predictor.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: Our future research will target determining specific thresholds of the MetS severity score that identify particular increases in risk for future cardiovascular disease. We then plan to assess whether using this score helps to motivate patients to make changes to lower their MetS severity score and lower their risk of cardiovascular disease.

No disclosures.

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Citation:

Independent Associations Between Metabolic Syndrome Severity and Future Coronary Heart Disease by Sex and Race
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF CARDIOLOGY VOL. 69, NO. 9, 2017 ª 2017 BY THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF CARDIOLOGY FOUNDATION PUBLISHED BY ELSEVIER

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Last Updated on March 1, 2017 by Marie Benz MD FAAD