Metabolic syndrome in normoglycaemic elderly men

Objective Type-2 diabetes is mainly the metabolic defect involving multiple organs. To conclude their intricate relationships, the term 'ominous octet' had been proposed to denote this phenomenon. In this study, we enrolled older men without any medications for MetS components to further elucidate the relationships between normoglycaemic state and MetS. Methods We enrolled male subjects with FPG less than 100 mg/dl and aged 65 and older undergoing routine health check-ups in Taiwan. After excluding subjects taking medications that might affect the components of MetS, a total of 6679 men were eligible for the analysis. Study subjects were further grouped into FPG tertiles (<91 mg/dl, 92-95 mg/dl and > 95 mg/dl for tertil 1, tertil 2 and tertil 3, respectively). Results There was a significant trend between the FPG and percentages of subjects having MetS (p = 0.009). The relationships between the MetS components were higher in FPG 2 and FPG 3 than FPG 1. In simple correlation, all of the MetS and LDL-C were positively correlated with FPG level and multiple regression further confirmed the same result except for HDL-C that became non-significant. Subjects in FPG3 had significantly higher ORs (ORs = 1.19) for having MetS than those in FPG1. Conclusions In conclusion, higher FPG still had higher risk of having MetS in normoglycaemic range in elderly male. More strict FPG level control may be valuable in CVD prevention and warrants further investigations.