Context and objective: It is known that patients, with a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome (MetS) having three or more cardiometabolic risk factors (CmRF) are associated with an increased cardiovascular risk. The study aimed at evaluating the increase of the risk depending on a number of individual CmRF while evaluating early subclinical atherosclerosis indicators measuring arterial markers, such as PWV and Aix, as well as eGFR.

Results: A total of 530 patients with at least two CmRF according to the NCEP ATP III metabolic syndrome definition were screened for the assessment of subclinical atherosclerosis (measuring PWVradial, PWVfemoral, Aix@HR75), as well as eGFR (using the MDRD formula). A correlation between Aix@HR75 and eGFR (Pearson Correlation Coef. 0.435, p<0.01) was found. Between the groups with two, three or four CmRF, increasing PWVradial (ANOVA, p=0.032) (Figure 1), decreasing Aix@HR75 (p<0.01) and deteriorating eGFR (p<0.01) (Figure 2) with an increasing number of CmRF were noted. The difference in PWVfemoral between the groups was not statistically significant.

Conclusion: For CVD risk prediction, every individual trait and a number of traits of CmRF must be considered. While Aix increases, eGFR decreases with an increasing number of CmRF. Affected arterial markers were detected in patents with just two CmRF and further worsening was observed with each additional factor, suggesting that individual CmRF is important when defining the CVD risk for patients with or without MetS.