RESEARCH ARTICLE


Treating Arterial Stiffness Associated with Features of Metabolic Syndrome Not Included in its Diagnostic Criteria: Cutting Off the Heads of Lernaean Hydra, Keeper of the Underworld



Vasilios G. Athyros1, Alessandra Ferlita2, Konstantinos Tziomalos3, Manfredi Rizzo2, 4, *
1 Second Propedeutic Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Hippokration Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece
2 Biomedical Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties, University of Palermo, Italy
3 First Propedeutic Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, AHEPA Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece
4 Euro-Mediterranean Institute of Science and Technology, Italy

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2013
Volume: 5
First Page: 67
Last Page: 74
Publisher Id: TOHYPERJ-5-67
DOI: 10.2174/1876526201305010067

Article History:

Received Date: 10/08/2013
Revision Received Date: 19/08/2013
Acceptance Date: 19/08/2013
Electronic publication date: 13/12/2013
Collection year: 2013

© 2013 Athyros et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Biomedical Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties, University of Palermo, Via del Vespro, 141, 90127, Palermo, Italy; Tel: +39(091)6552945; Fax: +39(091)6552945; Email: manfredi.rizzo@unipa.it


Abstract

The clustering of cardio-metabolic risk factors, regardless if this is called metabolic syndrome (MetS) or not, substantially increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality. One of the possible mechanisms of the rise in CVD incidence is the increase in arterial stiffness (AS), which is a significant and independent CVD risk factor. Hypertension has long been connected to AS. Besides MetS components (obesity, dyslipidaemia, hypertension, dysglycaemia), MetS-associated disease states, not included in the MetS diagnostic criteria (renal dysfunction, hyperuricaemia, non alcoholic fatty liver disease, obstructive sleep apnea, polycystic ovary syndrome and hypercoaglutability) have been implicated in the increase of CVD risk through the increase of AS, among other mechanisms. Treatment options for AS induced by these non-diagnostic features of MetS are discussed. The impact of lifestyle changes is analyzed. Among pharmacological interventions, statin treatment seams to hold a pivotal role. Furthermore, we discuss specific measures for each disease state separately.

Keywords: Metabolic syndrome, arterial stiffness, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, hyperuricaemia, non alcoholic fatty liver disease, obstructive sleep apnea, polycystic ovary syndrome.