Evaluating CMR

Key Points

• WHO and EGIR clinical criteria rely mainly on insulin resistance. IDF criteria rely on abdominal obesity, while NCEP-ATP III gives equal weight to each clinical criterion of the metabolic syndrome.

• The IDF and NCEP-ATP III approaches use the same cut-off values for lipids, fasting glucose, and blood pressure. However, the IDF has proposed ethnic-specific cut-offs for waist circumference. Waist circumference is also a mandatory IDF criterion.

• A few prospective studies have compared metabolic syndrome criteria in assessing CVD risk. Although most criteria have a similar relationship to CVD risk, NCEP-ATP III criteria seem to have the strongest ties to CVD.

• Independent of the clinical criteria studied, the metabolic syndrome better predicts type 2 diabetes risk than CVD risk.  

• Further studies are needed to compare various metabolic syndrome clinical criteria using different statistical models and in all populations of the world.