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Young Adults Showing
Signs of Metabolic Syndrome
Metabolic syndrome -- a cluster of conditions such as high blood
pressure and high blood sugar levels that raise the risk of heart
disease and diabetes -- is an important marker of silent or "subclinical"
atherosclerosis in young, otherwise healthy adults, a study shows.
Atherosclerosis is defined as the build-up of fatty plaques in
arteries that inhibit blood flow, raising the risk of heart attack
and stroke.
Previous studies have shown that metabolic syndrome is associated
with silent atherosclerosis and increased cardiovascular risk
in older and middle-aged adults. The present study demonstrates
that these risk associations are also at work in young adults,
Dr. Wendy S. Tzou from University Medical School in Madison, Wisconsin
and colleagues point out.
The finding supports the "importance of screening and early intervention"
in young adults with metabolic syndrome, they write in the Journal
of the American College of Cardiology.
Among 507 nondiabetic subjects with a mean age of 32 in the Bogalusa
Heart Study, a longitudinal study of atherosclerosis in young
adults, 67 (13 percent) met World Health
Organization (WHO) criteria for metabolic syndrome and
65 (13 percent) met the National Cholesterol Education Program
(NCEP) criteria for metabolic syndrome.
Ultrasound examinations showed that young adults with metabolic
syndrome had thicker neck arteries, an indicator of atherosclerosis,
compared with young adults without metabolic syndrome. So-called
carotid intima-media thickness increased with the number of components
of the metabolic syndrome present.
The study shows that the "burden of subclinical atherosclerosis
in young adults increases with an increasing burden of components
of metabolic syndrome," according to the team. High blood pressure
and low levels of HDL cholesterol -- the good cholesterol -- are
especially powerful predictors of increased carotid intima-media
thickness, the team reports.
"Because metabolic syndrome characteristics and the magnitude
of subclinical atherosclerosis are modifiable, they might be appropriate
for intervention in young adults," Tzou and colleagues conclude.
SOURCE: Journal American College of Cardiology, August 2, 2005.
