Peer Reviewed
Perspectives

The metabolic syndrome: does its presence really matter?

Elizabeth Blanchard, Katherine Samaras
Abstract
Does a diagnosis of the metabolic syndrome have a greater predictive power to detect or predict disease than individual risk factors?
Key Points
  • Metabolic syndrome is a useful research construct that recognises the links between central obesity, diabetes and accelerated cardiovascular disease.
  • In clinical practice, it is more important to detect and treat the individual components of the metabolic syndrome, where there is strong evidence of health benefit.
  • There may be missed opportunities for early intervention for diabetes and heart disease prevention in patients with some but not all of the metabolic syndrome components who receive lesser clinical attention.
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