[Agreement between three definitions of metabolic syndrome in hypertensive patients].

OBJECTIVE Determining agreement between three definitions of metabolic syndrome (MS) in hypertensive Colombian patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS A descriptive study of 323 hypertensive patients from Cartagena, Colombia, was designed. A medical history was compiled; waist circumference, serum lipids and fasting serum glucose were recorded. MS prevalence was compared by using by the definitions provided by the Adult Treatment Panel III (APT III), the American Heart Association (AHA), the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and a modified IDF (> or = 88 cm waist circumference in males). Cohen's kappa test was used for evaluating agreement between means. RESULTS 77.5% of the patients were female. MS overall prevalence was 59.9% according to ATP III, 83.6% by AHA, 81.2% by IDF and 92.9% by IDFm. Agreement was fairly clear when comparing the definitions, except when comparing the IDFm one with ATP III and AHA. The greatest agreement was provided when comparing IDF to AHA (kappa= 0.638). CONCLUSIONS MS prevalence was higher in hypertensive Colombian patients than in other countries, probably because the greater prevalence of its components. Clear agreement was shown when comparing most definitions, apart from poor correlation between criteria compared using IDFm (except with non-modified IDF).