[The metabolic syndrome exists].
Critics have rightly pointed out that the syndrome's pathophysiology is uncertain, its definition hazardous, its clinical usefulness doubtful, and its public health consequences--if it is considered a disease--enormous. However, no one doubts that certain cardiovascular risk factors tend to cluster. It is this clustering (and nothing else) that defines the syndrome, which therefore does exist.
Stehouwer
C D A
CD
Academisch Ziekenhuis Maastricht, afd. Interne Geneeskunde, AZ Maastricht. csteh@sint.azm.nl
D006801:Humans; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D011634:Public Health; D012307:Risk Factors