Obesity, particularly abdominal obesity, is associated with resistance to the effects of insulin on peripheral glucose and fatty acid utilization, often leading to type 2 diabetes mellitus . Insulin resistance, the associated hyperinsulinemia and hyperglycemia, and adipocyte cytokines (adipokines) may also lead to vascular endothelial dysfunction, an abnormal lipid profile, hypertension, and vascular inflammation, all of which promote the development of an atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The co-occurrence of metabolic risk factors for both type 2 diabetes and CVD (abdominal obesity, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, and hypertension) suggested the existence of a "metabolic syndrome”.
Other names applied to this constellation of findings have included syndrome X, the insulin resistance syndrome, the deadly quartet, or the obesity dyslipidemia syndrome. The metabolic syndrome has been…
