Objective: To investigate the impact of metabolic syndrome (MS) with or without hyperglycemia on stroke prevalence compared to that of diabetes alone.
Methods: 44 100 subjects, 20 570 males and 23 530 females, aged 25 - 75, who had participated in the Chinese Residents Nutrition and Health Examination Survey held in the mainland of China 2002, underwent anthropometry, measurement of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and 2 hour plasma glucose (2 h PG) after 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). 22 570 subjects, 10 698 males and 11 872 females, were divided into 5 groups: control group without MS risk factors (n = 17 518), Group of diabetes mellitus (DM) without MS (n = 638), group of MS with normoglycemia (n = 2501), Group of MS with mild hyperglycemia (n = 1058), and group MS with DM (n = 855). The relationship between MS and stroke was studied by multiple logistic regression analysis.
Results: The prevalence of MS increased along with age. The MS prevalence rates of the subjects with FPG > or = 5.6 mmol/L in the age groups 25 - 34, 35 - 44, 45 - 54, and > or = 55 were 23.5%, 37.2%, 45.7%, and 53.0% respectively, all significantly higher than those of the subjects with the FPG < 5.6 mmol/L (2.2%, 4.7%, 7.8%, and 9.5% respectively, all P < 0.01). The prevalence rates of stroke of the groups of DM, normal blood sugar with MS, mild hyperglycemia with MS, and DM with MS were 2.94%, 2.27%, 2.89%, and 4.11%, respectively, all significantly higher than that of the control group (0.19%, all P < 0.01). After adjustment for age, sex, smoking status, and LDL-C, no significant difference was observed between the neighboring MS groups (all P > 0.05). Compared to the group of MS with normoglycemia, the OR value for stroke of the DM with MS was 1.84 (95% CI 1.20 - 2.83, P < 0.01), which was still significant after adjusting for LDL-C (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: (1) People with glucose intolerance had very high prevalence of stroke than novmoglgcemic people. (2) Hyperglycemia in MS has an extremely important role in the impact of MS on stroke in Chinese. (3) Diabetes by itself has the same significance as the combination of MS components in the development of stroke.