Cardiovascular risk associated with the metabolic syndrome.

The term metabolic syndrome refers to a clustering of cardiovascular risk factors, most of which also share insulin resistance as an additional feature. Scientific effort has concentrated on understanding why these diverse cardiovascular risks co-occur in individuals and in determining the presumed common environmental or genetic factors that might underpin this. Clinically important developments include publication of standard definitions of the metabolic syndrome and recommendations for the use of type 2 diabetes and the presence of the metabolic syndrome as critical "risk stratifiers" in cardiovascular disease prevention. The remarkable recent secular increases in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and obesity in many populations mean that the importance of the metabolic syndrome as a determinant of cardiovascular disease is likely to increase until these trends can be reversed.