Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) is associated with increased cardiovascular risk in the general population. Its prognostic implications are less well defined in patients with coronary artery disease.
Methods and results: We analyzed patients in the Duke Database for Cardiovascular Disease with a diagnosis of incident obstructive coronary artery disease. Diabetes mellitus (DM) was classified as a clinical history of DM, use of hypoglycemic drugs, or fasting glucose of >or=126 mg/dL. MetSyn was defined as having 3 of 5 characteristics: fasting glucose >or=100 and <126 mg/dL, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (men, <40 mg/dL; women, <50 mg/dL), triglycerides >150 mg/dL, blood pressure >or=130/85 mm Hg, or use of antihypertensive therapy, or body mass index >or=27. Death, myocardial infarction, or stroke was assessed at 6 months, 1 year, then annually. Cox proportional hazards models were generated to compare mortality and cardiovascular events between groups. The primary cohort consisted of 5744 patients; 1831 (31.9%) had DM, 2491 (43.4%) had MetSyn, and 1422 (24.7%) had no DM/MetSyn. Median follow-up was 5 years. Compared with no DM/MetSyn patients, DM patients had a higher adjusted risk for mortality (hazard ratio, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.28 to 1.69) but MetSyn patients did not (hazard ratio, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.81 to 1.08). Similar results were found for the combined end points of death or myocardial infarction, and death, myocardial infarction, or stroke.
Conclusions: In a population of consecutive patients with a new diagnosis of coronary artery disease by angiography, MetSyn without DM was not an independent predictor of mortality or cardiovascular events.