Obesity and metabolic syndrome: clinical and therapeutic review

The recent ATP III classification defines metabolic syndrome as including ≥3 of the following characteristics: abdominal adiposity, atherogenic dyslipidemia, high blood pressure, and insulin resistance. In these patients the visceral fat may produce inflammatory cytochines that may account for an enhanced cardiovascular risk. The treatment of obese patients is complex and often ineffective: patients may initially reduce weight but subsequently regain or even increase it, according to the socalled “yo-yo syndromeâ€. Given the difficulties of treatment of patients with incresed BMI, visceral adiposity, or metabolic syndrome, a multidisciplinary approach to these patients may yield more frequent positive results. The different strategies that may be applied, in varying mix targeted to the individual patient, include diet, drugs, educational and psychological support and, in few selected cases, surgery.