Metabolic syndrome in Argentine women: ATPIII, IDF, IDF/AHA/NHLBI; What criterion should be used?

Introduction. The menopause and the metabolic syndrome (MS) are related with the increase of the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Objectives. To evaluate the existence of metabolic risk factors and the prevalence of MS in pre- and post-menopausal women. Subjects. 253 women: 120 pre-menopausal and 133 post-menopausal. Anthropometric, arterial pressure and waist circumference measurements were carried out. Glycaemia, lipids, creatinine, hepatogram, uric acid and thyroid-stimulating hormone were dosed. Results. Statistical higher registries of arterial pressure, levels of glycaemia, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, triglycerides and TG/high-density lipoprotein relation were observed among post-menopausal patients. As regards this group, the MS diagnosis was considerably higher, being the same by all the criteria. Conclusions. We found more prevalence of cardiometabolic and MS risk factors among the group of postmenopausal patients. The responsible mechanisms would respond to the secondary hypoestrogenaemia at the cease of the ovarian function. Because of this fact, menopausal women should be considered a risk group for the development of MS.