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Victor Blaton
KU-Leuven and Department Clinical Chemistry, Az St Jan Av, Brugge,
Belgium
Some historical aspects on the metabolic syndrome
The contemporary definition of the metabolic syndrome refers to a
cluster of metabolic abnormalities related to a state of insulin
resistance, which is often associated with a high-risk
overweight/obesity phenotype. Because such cluster increases the
risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and type 2 diabetes, numerous
consensus groups have attempted to provide recommendations to
identify in clinical practice patients with these
atherogenic/diabetogenic metabolic abnormalities. Although there
has been an exponential proliferation of scientific papers and
conferences on the metabolic syndrome, the concept of a cluster of
abnormalities such as obesity, diabetes, dyslipidaemia and
hypertension is not new and several physicians/investigators have
contributed to the development of such concept through astute
clinical observations or epidemiological/metabolic studies.
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