metabolic syndrome
Meaning of metabolic syndrome: Metabolic syndrome describes a cluster of findings, including abdominal obesity and abnormal blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol levels, that together raise cardiovascular and diabetes risk.
Definition of metabolic syndrome
Metabolic syndrome is a term for a cluster of related findings that tend to occur together and raise a person's risk of future disease. These findings include excess fat carried around the abdomen, elevated blood pressure, an elevated fasting blood glucose level, elevated triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood, and a reduced level of high-density lipoprotein, the cholesterol carrier often described as protective.
No single one of these findings defines metabolic syndrome on its own. Instead, the diagnosis reflects the presence of several of these features occurring together in the same person, since each finding individually is common, but their combination identifies a pattern associated with meaningfully greater risk than any one feature alone.
People with metabolic syndrome face an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes and of diseases affecting the heart and blood vessels, such as heart attack and stroke. The condition is also known as metabolic syndrome X, an older name reflecting the initial uncertainty about the mechanism linking its component findings.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
The patient met criteria for metabolic syndrome based on abdominal obesity, elevated blood pressure, and abnormal lipid levels.
Good to know
No single finding, such as blood pressure or blood glucose alone, defines metabolic syndrome, since the diagnosis depends on several of its component findings occurring together in the same person.
Word origin
Where “metabolic syndrome” comes from
Formed from Greek metabole, meaning change, the root of metabolic, combined with syndrome, from Greek syn- (together) and dramein (to run), describing a set of findings that occur together.