A Major Breakthrough: Five Major Organizations Agree on the Definition of the Metabolic Syndrome

Five major scientific organizations – the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the American Heart Association (AHA), the World Heart Federation (WHF), the International Atherosclerosis Society (IAS), and the International Association of the Study of Obesity (IASO) – have just released a joint interim statement that represents a giant leap toward a unified definition of the metabolic syndrome. Individuals who meet at least 3 of 5 clinical criteria will be diagnosed as having the condition; presence of none of these criteria is mandatory. Explicit cutpoints are defined for all criteria, except elevated waist circumference, which must rely on population and country-specific definitions.
This long awaited statement opens novel perspectives in terms of detection and management of the metabolic syndrome, and will also facilitate research in the field. Its development was sponsored by the IDF and supported in part by the Metabolic Syndrome Institute (MSI) and its partners.

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Nonfasting triglyceride levels independently associated with incident cardiovascular events

Fasting triglyceride levels show little independent association.

The importance of triglycerides in cardiovascular risk is controversial. Triglycerides are typically determined in the fasting state, yet postprandial hypertriglyceridaemia may play an important role in atherosclerosis. This study sought to determine the association of fasting versus nonfasting triglyceride levels and risk of future cardiovascular events.