[Epidemiologic study on metabolic syndrome--comparison between Japan and western countries]

Decreased insulin sensitivity(insulin resistance) has recently attracted attention as a factor which may relate obesity, impaired glucose tolerance, abnormal lipid metabolism and hypertension. Our epidemiologic study, mostly the 20% of general population has insulin resistance, and insulin resistance is enhanced in elderly subjects. Recently, NCEP-ATP III(2001) proposed the new clinical identification criteria for metabolic syndrome, which is a similar concept for insulin resistance syndrome and multiple risk factor syndrome. In NCEP-ATP III criteria, abdominal circumferences of over 102 cm in male, and over 88 cm in female were used as the index of abdominal obesity. However, in Japanese guideline, abdominal circumferences over 85 cm in male and 90 cm in female have been proposed as the abdominal obesity. Thus, the abdominal obesity criteria is one of the big differences between Japan and Western countries. Moreover, the capacity of insulin secretion is also very different between the diabetes patients in Japanese and Western countries people. The background characteristics and prognosis of metabolic syndrome are mostly the same in Japan and other countries. Thus, the concept of metabolic syndrome seems to be very significant to prevent and control the athelosclerotic cardiovascular diseases even in the case of Japan.