Impact of metabolic syndrome on the progression of intima-media thickening in Japanese—A follow-up study

The presence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its individual components is related to an increased IMT. MetS and increasing numbers of individual MetS components predicted future progression of IMT. Improvement of MetS was related to smaller increases in IMT, especially in females. These findings may suggest a benefit of intervention for MetS, which needs to be confirmed by prospective studies.