Presence of metabolic syndrome improves mortality risk prediction

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7546.0-a

BMJ 2006;332 (15 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7546.0-a

Presence of metabolic syndrome improves mortality risk prediction

The presence of the metabolic syndrome helps to predict riskfor total and cardiovascular mortality above and beyond theusual cardiovascular disease risk factors, report Sundströmand colleagues (p 878), who studied 2300 middle aged men forup to 32 years. When the metabolic syndrome was added to modelsof established cardiovasular risk factors (smoking, diabetes,hypertension, and serum cholesterol), the risk for total andcardiovascular mortality increased by 40-60%. In a commentary,however, Farmer (p 882) points out that research on the metabolicsyndrome has so far yielded mixed results.