Metabolic syndrome is a risk factor for acute cerebral infarction in a younger elderly Kurashiki population.

This study evaluated the association between metabolic syndrome as defined by Japanese criteria and its diagnostic components (visceral obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and impaired glucose tolerance) and acute cerebral infarction in younger elderly (age 50-74 years) and the older elderly (age ≥75 years) persons living in the Japanese city of Kurashiki. We studied 73 patients aged ≥50 years (44 of them aged ≥75 years) admitted to our hospital with acute cerebral infarction and 323 control subjects aged ≥50 years (52 aged ≥75 years) who underwent medical checkup of the brain in our hospital. Types of cerebral infarction included atherothrombotic (27 patients), lacunar (24 patients), cardioembolic (19 patients), and other types (3 patients). Metabolic syndrome was defined based on the Japanese criteria. In multiple logistic regression analysis, among the 29 younger elderly patients aged 50-74 years, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and impaired glucose tolerance as diagnostic components of metabolic syndrome, and metabolic syndrome itself were significantly related to acute cerebral infarction (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 5.664, 4.869, 3.390, and 3.214, respectively). Among the 44 older elderly patients aged ≥75 years, dyslipidemia was significantly related to acute cerebral infarction (OR, 4.193). However, metabolic syndrome was not a significant risk factor for acute cerebral infarction, even when patients with cardioembolic and other types of infarction were excluded. These data suggest that metabolic syndrome as defined by Japanese criteria is an independent risk factor for acute cerebral infarction in the younger elderly, but not the older elderly, Kurashiki population.