ABSTRACT
Subjects with the metabolic syndrome have insulin resistance as a core feature, which results in impaired glucose tolerance or frank hyperglycemia.
Epidemiological studies have shown that patients with diabetes mellitus and glucose intolerance are at increased risk for coronary heart disease (CHD). In the first 20 years of the Framingham Heart Study, the incidence of cardiovascular disease among men with diabetes was twice that among men without diabetes, and among women with diabetes the incidence of cardiovascular disease was three times that among women without diabetes1. Also, in the Framingham Offspring Study, compared with normal glucose tolerance, subjects with impaired glucose tolerance or an impaired fasting glucose were more likely, and those with diabetes were significantly more likely, to have subclinical coronary atherosclerosis.
