Scoring System for the Severity of the Metabolic Syndrome

Abstract

To be categorized as having the metabolic syndrome, a patient must have three of five characteristics, including high blood pressure (BP), high blood glucose, large waist circumference, high blood triglycerides (TG), and low blood HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C). However, no method is currently available to indicate the magnitude of the syndrome in a given individual. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to establish a metabolic syndrome score (MS score) to quantify the severity of the metabolic syndrome for a given individual. In addition we attempted to explore the correlation between physical fitness (VO2max) and the metabolic syndrome. METHODS: Subjects were 64 volunteers (44 women, 20 men, age 18–50 yr) who were screened for metabolic syndrome variables, including waist circumference, HDL-C, plasma TG, plasma total cholesterol (TC), BP, fasting plasma glucose, and body mass index (BMI). Some of the subjects (n=49) also were screened for VO2max, percent body fat, and C-reactive protein (CRP). Ratings of 0,1,3,5 (lowest to highest risk) were assigned to ranges of values for each factor per the level of risk as ascertained from the literature. Each subject was scored using this scale on each variable. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated using SPSS 13.0. RESULTS: MS scores using nine risk factors were significantly correlated with waist circumference (r=0.69), BMI (r=0.83), percent body fat (r=0.40), TG (r=0.39), fasting glucose (r=0.60), CRP (r=0.49), and BP (r=0.33) (p<0.05). MS scores using only five metabolic syndrome variables were significantly correlated with waist circumference (r=0.57), TG (r=0.41), HDL-C (r=−0.42), BP (r=0.32), and fasting glucose (r=0.60) (p<0.01). VO2max was significantly correlated with percent body fat (r=−0.52), BMI (r=−0.60), CRP (r=−0.54), and fasting glucose (r=−0.41) (p<0.01) but not TG (r=.04) or HDL-C (r=−0.07). VO2max was significantly correlated with total MS score (r=−0.71). CONCLUSION: These preliminary results suggest that a scoring system can be developed to assess the severity of the metabolic syndrome for a given patient. VO2max is not a good correlate for all variables in the metabolic syndrome, but it is associated with the overall severity of the metabolic syndrome.