Nearly half of heart attack patients also met criteria for metabolic syndrome, putting them at a higher risk for development of heart failure, according to an article in the May 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Metabolic syndrome is a group of risk factors in an individual that may precede type 2 diabetes mellitus, according to background information in the article. The definition for metabolic syndrome includes thresholds for waist circumference, concentrations of triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the 'good cholesterol'), fasting blood glucose levels, and elevated blood pressure. A survey found that metabolic syndrome was prevalent in 25 percent of white Americans and 44 percent of people 50 years and older. The effect of metabolic syndrome after acute myocardial infarction (AMI, heart attack) has not yet been studied.
Metabolic syndrome prevalent in heart attack patients
