[Hyperinsulinemia--the common denominator in type II diabetes mellitus,obesity, hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia and atherosclerosis].

During the last twenty years we witnessed a remarkable increase in knowledge of the mechanism as regards insulin action, the central hormone of metabolic regulations. Interest in cellular and molecular mechanisms of action was conditioned by a high prevalence of insulin resistance and the fact that insulin resistance holds a key position in the pathogenesis of many diseases, in particular atherosclerosis, obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus type II, ovarian hyperandrogenism and others. The syndrome of hyperinsulinaemia/insulin resistance is the basic component of the so-called X syndrome defined in 1988 by Reaven. It is encountered in subjects with a normal glucose tolerance but a predisposition for diabetes type II. If this disposition, probably genetic by nature, is potentiated by the central type of obesity and a sedentary lifestyle it can influence the development of hypertension and dyslipidemia. The sum of these factors promotes acceleration of atherosclerosis and frequently its premature manifestations: myocardial infarction and other cardiovascular diseases which hold the first place as regards causes of death on a world wide scale. It is important to identify but also to treat this complex not only metabolic risk factors for macrovascular diseases. It is a paradox that some drugs used as antihypertensives can cause deterioration of insulin resistance, subsequently influence in an adverse manner dyslipidemia and thus increase the metabolic risk of cardiovascular diseases. In the submitted paper the authors tried to summarize hitherto expressed views on the syndrome of hyperinsulinaemia and insulin resistance, using as a basic the results of their own work.