RESUMEN
Background: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome is increasing in Indian population, predisposing an increased risk for the development of diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. Methods: A case control study was conducted to assess the prevalence of MS and the association between the components of MS in 250 patients, diagnosed by angiography to have CAD (125 patients) as cases and no CAD (125 patients) as control group. MS was diagnosed based on the modified ATP III guidelines, if three or more of the following were present: abdominal obesity, hypertension, glucose intolerance, hypertriglyceridemia or low HDL-C levels. SPSS Version 15 was used for statistical analysis and Chi-square analysis was used to estimate the prevalence of MS with respect to the severity of CAD, family history of CAD and smoking history. The association between individual risk factor and outcome was estimated using univariate logistic regression. The multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the components of MS as a risk factor for CAD, controlling the other confounders. A P value of <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The prevalence of MS was higher in CAD (70.4%) than in subjects without CAD (66.4%). Diabetic subjects with (88.24%) and without (87.93%) CAD had significantly higher % of MS when compared with non-diabetic subjects with CAD (49.12%) and without CAD (47.76%) (P < 0.001). Of 125 patients with CAD, 3% patients had no functional markers of MS; 11.2 % had an expression of one; 20 % had two; 32 % had three and 33.8% had four functional markers of MS. The level of MS mounted high with the increasing severity of CAD when compared with normal coronary arteries but was not statistically significant (P=0.176). The percentage of MS was higher in patients with family history of CAD (78.18%) which was statistically significant (P<0.001) and was comparatively lower in non-smokers (46.7%) and ex-smokers (62.2%) than smokers (65.2%). Conclusion: A higher prevalence of MS was observed in diabetics with and without CAD. This is suggestive of an increased risk of CAD in diabetic patients with MS than in non-diabetic patients.