A Cardiologist's Perspective on Cardiometabolic Risk

Many patients who present for cardiovascular evaluation meet the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) criteria for the metabolic syndrome. Indeed, the metabolic abnormalities that characterize the syndrome are major drivers of atherosclerosis. Although definitive therapeutic interventions for the metabolic syndrome remain unclear, considerable data implicate adiposity as a core element of this constellation of abnormalities. Thus, for practicing cardiologists, the need to better understand and target adiposity is inescapable.