Unfavourable trends in cardiovascular and metabolic risk in paediatric and adult patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia?

CONTEXT: As a result of the introduction of treatment with glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids, now 60 years ago, congenital adrenal hyperplasia has become a lifelong chronic disease. Whether long-term treatment of the disease leads to long-term side effects remains unknown. In this respect, especially cardiovascular risk seems to be important.

EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: We reviewed the reported prevalence of conventional cardiovascular risk factors, i.e. obesity, insulin resistance, high blood pressure and dyslipidaemia in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Overall, the studies suggest a tendency towards an increased body mass index and fat mass, the presence of insulin resistance and hypertension, although data are relatively scarce and obtained in heterogeneous populations.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that adult CAH patients tend to have a cluster of metabolic risk factors, which are consistent with the metabolic syndrome. This notion may have consequences for the care for this group of patients.