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Metabolic abnormalities, such as abnormal lipid profile, abdominal obesity, elevated blood glucose level, and elevated blood pressure, often are referred to collectively as the metabolic syndrome. Controversy exists about whether risk associated with this syndrome is greater than the sum of its individual components. In this large global case-control study of myocardial infarction, researchers classified more than 16,000 participants (6905 with previous MIs) by whether they met two commonly used definitions for metabolic syndrome.
Excess risk for MI associated with metabolic syndrome (odds ratio, 2.7 or 2.2, depending on which criteria were used) was similar to that associated with diabetes (OR, 2.7) or hypertension (OR, 2.6) alone. The pres…