Metabolic syndrome in Argentine women: ATPIII, IDF, IDF/AHA/NHLBI; what criterion should be used?

Introduction: The menopause and the metabolic syndrome (MS) are related with the increase of the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Objectives: To evaluate the existence of metabolic risk factors and the prevalence of MS in pre- and post-menopausal women.

Subjects: 253 women: 120 pre-menopausal and 133 post-menopausal. Anthropometric, arterial pressure and waist circumference measurements were carried out. Glycaemia, lipids, creatinine, hepatogram, uric acid and thyroid-stimulating hormone were dosed.

Results: Statistical higher registries of arterial pressure, levels of glycaemia, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, triglycerides and TG/high-density lipoprotein relation were observed among post-menopausal patients. As regards this group, the MS diagnosis was considerably higher, being the same by all the criteria.

Conclusions: We found more prevalence of cardiometabolic and MS risk factors among the group of post-menopausal patients. The responsible mechanisms would respond to the secondary hypoestrogenaemia at the cease of the ovarian function. Because of this fact, menopausal women should be considered a risk group for the development of MS.