Study on the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in Turner syndrome

Turner syndrome (TS) is a clinical condition caused by the complete or partial absence of an X chromosome, which affects 1/2500-3000 female newborns. It is characterized, in more than the 90% of cases, by short stature and gonadal dysgenesis, as well as different malformations and anomalies in several organs and apparatuses. Patients with this syndrome show, compared with the general population, an increased risk of developing diabetes mellitus, ischemic cardiac diseases, atherosclerosis and hypertension and they result particularly predisposed to overweight and obesity. The metabolic syndrome (MS), instead, is a pathological condition which is characterized by the association between increased visceral adiposity, anomalies in the metabolism of carbohydrates, hypertension and dyslipidemia. The metabolic syndrome represents moreover a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes mellitus. The purpose of our study was to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in Turner syndrome and to evaluate the relationship between MS and body composition, visceral adiposity and clinical characteristics in the patients with Turner syndrome that we analyzed.