Metabolic Syndrome Increases Progression of Atherosclerosis

KUOPIO, Finland--Incident metabolic syndrome was associated with accelerated progression of subclinical atherosclerosis in elderly women, according to new research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine (166:444-9, 2006). Researchers from the Kuopio Research Institute of Exercise Medicine and related institutions performed a 12-year follow-up study in a population-based sample of 101 women aged 60 to 70 at baseline, examining occurrence of metabolic syndrome and quantifying carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) through ultrasonography. Prevalence of metabolic syndrome increased from 13 percent at baseline to 46 percent at the study's end, while mean IMT increased 21 percent over the same time period (from 1.05 ± 0.31 mm to 1.27 ± 0.38 mm). Among the individuals without metabolic syndrome at baseline, the increase in carotid IMT was greater in the 34 women who developed metabolic syndrome over the study period (0.31 ± 0.37 mm) than in the women who did not (0.16 ± 0.25 mm), after adjusting for factors including cardiovascular diseases, physical activity and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels.

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