Prevalence of arterial and venous thromboembolic events in diabetic patients with and without the metabolic syndrome: a cross sectional study.

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MS) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. Recent studies have found a higher prevalence of the MS in patients with idiopathic venous thromboembolic events (VTE) compared to controls suggesting a role of the MS in the pathogenesis of VTE. The presence of MS was shown to further increase the risk of arterial cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in diabetic patients. Conversely, there are no studies that have compared the risk of VTE in diabetic patients with and without the MS.

Methods: A cross sectional study comparing the prevalence of arterial cardiovascular events and VTE in diabetic patients with and without the MS was conducted.

Results: Nine hundred and fifty three patients were included in the study; 85.7% of patients had MS. Patients with the MS had an increased prevalence of CVD as compared with those without (23.4% vs. 11.8%) and the MS was an independent predictor of CVD in diabetic patients (OR 3.16, 95%CI 1.78, 5.59) after multiple logistic regression analysis. The prevalence of VTE was higher in patients with the MS in comparison to patients without the MS, but this association was not statistically significant (3,43% vs 1.47%; OR 2.38, 95% CI 0.56, 10.10%).

Conclusion: Our study confirms the role of MS as an adjunctive cardiovascular risk factor in patients with diabetes. There is insufficient evidence to evaluate the role of the as an adjunctive risk factor for VTE in these patients. Further studies are necessary to confirm or refute these preliminary findings.