Treatment of hypertension in metabolic syndrome: implications of recent clinical trials

Abstract

Metabolic syndrome represents a constellation of hypertension, abdominal obesity, impaired fasting glucose, and dyslipidemia, and it has been shown to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The components of metabolic syndrome are rapidly emerging as epidemics of the twenty-first century, and reduction of these underlying causes, such as obesity, physical inactivity, and atherogenic diet, is first-line therapy. Treatment of hypertension and other cardiometabolic risk factors of the syndrome is also required. Evidence demonstrates a relationship between hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and several vascular and metabolic abnormalities that are components of metabolic syndrome. Hypertension associated with metabolic syndrome has pathophysiologic characteristics that provide clinical challenges as well as opportunities for successful therapeutic interventions. This article reviews the treatment of hypertension as a metabolic and vascular disease and also opens a new paradigm for the treatment of metabolic syndrome, which affects nearly one quarter of the world's population.