Prevalência de síndrome metabólica em pacientes de um ambulatório do Instituto de Cardiologia do Rio Grande do Sul (RS)

background: metabolic syndrome (ms) is considered a very important factor in the development of cardiovascular diseases (cvd). objective: to assess the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (ms) in outpatients undergoing secondary prevention of coronary artery disease in the institute of cardiology, university foundation of cardiology - ic-ufc, as well as to detect excess weight through body mass index (bmi) and the prevalence of abdominal obesity in patients with cardiovascular disease (cvd). methods: the final sample was comprised of 151 individuals (aged between 26 and 84 years) whose data were obtained from the first visit in which the following parameters were available: fasting blood tests, blood pressure (bp) measurement, waist circumference (wc) in centimeters, weight and height, gender and age. the ncep-atp iii criteria were used for the assessment of ms. results: 64.9% of the sample was comprised of males. the overweight and obesity rates found were 50% and 21.3%, respectively; increased wc was found in 30.8% of the individuals, 20 of whom were men and 25 were women. the prevalence of ms, as diagnosed according to the ncep-atp iii criteria, was 61.5%, including 54 men and 39 women. conclusion: we verified that the prevalence of ms in patients with cvd in the outpatient clinic for secondary prevention of cad at ic-ufc is high, and so are the prevalences of overweight, obesity and increased wc.