The role of individual criteria in the assessment of metabolic syndrome control in the DINAMIC study (IV)

Abstract

The present study was undertaken in 975 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus to measure eight anthropometric (clinical) and laboratory parameters defining the metabolic syndrome and to identify their role in the pathogenesis of this syndrome. In multifactorial analysis the number of measurable variables was reduced to three main factors (components), of which the first and third ones were most strongly correlated with lipid disorders, the second with arterial hypertension and body mass index (BMI), yielding the cumulative variance of 60%. The level of HbA_1c, a marker of glucose normal and altered metabolism, appeared to be the weakest correlate. These findings lead to a very important conclusion — also for family physicians — that in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus it is necessary to take into account the independent effects of lipid disorders, hypertension and obesity, whereas in patients with the latter two disorders only, the concomitant presence of glucose intolerance, basing upon more dynamic measurements of glycemia in the fasting state, after meals or during OGTT.