Abstract

The definition of “Metabolic Syndrome” was proposed to identify those subjects at high cardiovascular risk although without any feature of actual or possible cardiovascular damage. Clinical (such as blood presure and abdominal obesity) and laboratory characteristics (such as glycemia, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides) able to predict cardiovascular risk, either idividually or combined each other, were chosen. Despite a widespread evaluation in the context of several clinical trials, the real clinical meaning of the metabolic syndrome remained undetermined. The aim of our study was to evaluate the presence and the cardiovascular impact of the metabolic sindrome in the real clinical practice both from a medical and an economic viewpoint. The study objectives were pursued through the retrospective analysis of a database assembled by an informatic collaborative network of general practicioners in fine italian regions. A prospective phase of new data collection was also made. The study was organized as follows: characterization of study subjects, retrospective phase of identification of the features necessary to define the metabolic syndrome, prospective cohorts assembly, comparison between the retrospective and the prospective cohort, comparisons of cohorts with and without metabolic syndrome, evaluation of different treatments and their effects.

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