[Association between metabolic syndrome and hyperhomocysteinemia in an Algerian population]

Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a phenomenon of insulin resistance, a harbinger of serious cardiovascular events. The lifestyle of Algerian becoming increasingly occidental, SM becomes a major problem of public health in our country. Furthermore, hyperhomocysteinemia is also recognized as a cardiovascular risk factor. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia in patients with SM in our people and to seek a possible relationship between these two risk factors.

We performed a prospective study that was focused on 62 hospitalized patients with SM, composed of 33 men and 29 women. Clinical data were collected and laboratory tests were also performed.

The average age of our patients was 52±20 years; the average waist circumference was 103.4±10.1cm in men and 91.5±8.42cm in women. In this study, 53.2%, 54.4%, 25.8% and 51.6% of patients had respectively hypertension, hyperglycemia, low HDL-C levels and hypertriglyceridemia. The prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia was 62.9% in our patients. This prevalence is correlated with age and the number of the SM components. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed no significant association between hyperhomocysteinemia and SM components studied separately.

The prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia in patients with an SM is important in our population. It increases with age and number of SM components, without a relationship between hyperhomocysteinemia and SM components studied separately.