Metabolic Syndrome and Incidence of Stroke

ABSTRACT

The relationship between metabolic syndrome and stroke has not been investigated as widely as that for coronary heart disease. The aim of the study is to make an overall review of the published articles on metabolic syndrome and the stroke incidence. Eight population-based prospective studies are included and a meta-analysis based on the published data was performed. The combined overall hazard ratio for stroke incidence was similar (around 1.7) for different definitions of the metabolic syndrome. A European study which has compared four different definitions using paired homogeneity test did not find any difference in the prediction of the ischemic stroke incidence and there was also no differences between a full definition and its single individual components.