Metabolic Syndrome Adds Little to Prediction of Diabetes and CVD

To evaluate the usefulness of the metabolic syndrome in predicting onset of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD), researchers reviewed two large prospective studies in which baseline data were collected from older men on all five metabolic-syndrome components (body-mass index, triglyceride level, HDL cholesterol level, fasting glucose level, blood pressure). These studies provided outcome data on incident CVD and type 2 diabetes. In the Prospective Study of Pravastatin in the Elderly at Risk (PROSPER; JW Jan 7 2003), 4218 older patients (age range, 70–82) with vascular disease or high risk for vascular disease received pravastatin or placebo and were followed for a mean of 3.2 years. In the observational population-based British Region…