The objective of this study was to examine the contribution of metabolic syndrome and its individual components to the risk of acute myocardial infarction (MI) in a large multiethnic population. The analyses were performed on participants from the INTERHEART study (n=26,903) involving 52 countries. The metabolic syndrome was evaluated using the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Diabetes Federation (IDF) clinical criteria. Results showed that the metabolic syndrome was a significant risk factor for acute MI, both using the WHO and IDF criteria in women and men, from all regions and ethnic groups. The presence of metabolic syndrome conferred a similar risk of MI compared to diabetes or hypertension alone. However, the risk associated with metabolic syndrome was not greater than the sum of its components. The authors suggest that this finding is probably due to the use of dichotomous risk factors that may underestimate risk.
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