Frequency of the metabolic syndrome in type 2 diabetic subjects attending the diabetes clinic of a tertiary care hospital.

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency of the metabolic syndrome in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus wiho attended the diabetes clinic of Liaquat National Hospital, Karachi. METHOD A descriptive study was conducted at the diabetes clinic of Liaquat National Hospital from June 2004 to December 2004. We enrolled 233 subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Frequency of metabolic syndrome was estimated according to the criteria proposed by National Cholesterol Education Program-Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III), with adoption of the Asian criteria for abdominal obesity and recently proposed International Diabetes Federation (IDF) diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome. RESULTS There were 233 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in whom 49.8% were men and 50.2% were women. Mean age was 49.9 years. By applying NCEP-ATP III criteria, metabolic syndrome was found in 79.7% type 2 diabetics, (45.5% women and 34.3% men), by applying IDF criteria, metabolic syndrome was identified in 68.1% of type 2 diabetics (43.7% women and 24.4% men). CONCLUSION In our study the frequency of the metabolic syndrome was found significantly high, especially in women and at a relatively young age of 49.9 years.