ABSTRACT
Introduction The prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) is currently undergoing an unprecedented growth. It is projected to increase from the current prevalence of 150 million to 220 million affected persons world-wide by 2010 and 300 million by the year 2025. This dramatic effect is largely driven by the linked epidemic of obesity. Obesity is frequently part of a complex metabolic syndrome with coexisting dyslipidaemia, insulin-resistant, and type 2 DM. The recently released Third Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (NCEP ATP III) has drawn attention to the importance of the metabolic syndrome and provided a working definition of this syndrome for the first time, and highlights the importance of treating patients with the metabolic syndrome to prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD).
