Metabolic Syndrome and Cardiac Disease in Japanese Men: Applicability of the Concept of Metabolic Syndrome Defined by the National Cholesterol Education Program–Adult Treatment Panel III to Japanese Men—The Tanno and Sobetsu Study

Results of a 6-year follow-up study were used to determine whether the concept of and the criteria for metabolic syndrome as defined by the National Cholesterol Education Program–Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III) can be applied to Japanese men for prediction of the occurrence of cardiac disease. The subjects were 808 men who underwent mass health check-ups in 1993 and who were not on medication for hypertension, diabetes or hyperlipidemia. Individuals who had hypertriglyceridemia, hypo-high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterolemia, high blood pressure, and/or high fasting plasma glucose levels were identified on the basis of the NCEP-ATP III criteria. Not in conformity with the NCEP-ATP III, however, a cut-off value of 85 cm was used for waist girth as an indicator of abdominal obesity. The subjects who had 3 or more risk factors were judged as having metabolic syndrome. The proportion of subjects having metabolic syndrome was 25.3%. In the 6-year follow-up study, cardiac disease occurred in 11.7% of the subjects in the metabolic syndrome group and in 6.7% of the subjects in the non-metabolic syndrome group. Results of regression analysis using Cox's proportional hazards model showed that subjects in the metabolic syndrome group had a 2.2-times greater risk of developing cardiac disease than did subjects in the non-metabolic syndrome group. The concept of metabolic syndrome as defined in the NCEP-ATP III was therefore considered to be useful for predicting the occurrence of cardiac disease in Japanese men.