Guidelines for Diagnosis of Metabolic Syndrome Extended to Adolescents

Syndrome "Highly Associated" with Cardiovasculr Disease Later in Life

An article appearing in the February 27, 2007 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology provides the first set of guidelines for detecting metabolic syndrome in both male and female adolescents.

The authors of the report stress that although the incidence of metabolic syndrome among 12 to 19 year old age cohort has doubled over the past decade, there has been no standardized definition of both normal and abnormal findings. Using sophisticated statistical analysis and mathematic modeling the research team was able to construct a set of guidelines that will hopefully identify individual cases of metabolic syndrome as well as provide standardized data for use in future studies. Metabolic Syndrome is a complex disease entity that is known to carry an increased future risk for the development of cardiovascular disease. The first use of the term itself is generally taken to be 1988 when Reaven described the entity during his delivery of the prestigious Banting Lecture to the annual convention of the American Diabetes Association. Since that time, the terms "metabolic syndrome", "insulin resistance syndrome", and "syndrome X" have been used specifically to define a constellation of abnormalities that is associated with increased risk for the development of type 2 diabetes and atherosclerotic vascular disease (e.g. heart disease and/or stroke). For this article, we will use metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is usually diagnosed when 3 or more the following signs are present in bothadult and adolescent patients:

Excessive fat tissue in and around the abdomen.

Men: ¡Ý 40" (102 cm)

Women: ¡Ý 35" (88 cm)

Blood fat disorders - high triglycerides, low HDL (good) cholesterol and high LDL (bad) cholesterol

Triglycerides: ¡Ý 150 mg/dL

LDL (Men): < 40 mg/dL

LDL (Women): < 50mg/dL

Elevated blood pressure

(Men and Women): ¡Ý 130/85

Insulin resistance or glucose intolerance. This means the body can't properly use insulin or blood sugar.

(Men and Women): ¡Ý 100mg/dL