Hypertension and the cardiometabolic syndrome in Chile: a review of concepts and consequences for the developing world.

We review some recent developments regarding the concept of cardiometabolic syndrome and its relation with hypertension and overall cardiovascular disease risk. We emphasize how this new clinical entity has helped to understand multimorbidity in chronic diseases. This concept has important consequences for individual patient treatment as well as public health policy. The challenge derived from cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions is increasing worldwide, but the highest burden is located in the developing world. Thus, new and cost-effective approaches are needed for diseases that are mainly occurring in the poorest and less educated populations. We illustrate this situation analyzing hypertension and cardiometabolic syndrome data derived from a recent national health survey in Chile.