Introduction:
For many years, concepts have appeared concerning an independence of diseases concomitant with diabetes, such as arterial hypertension, obesity, lipid disorders or atherosclerosis. There was no doubt, however, that the presence of these disorders in diabetes, to a great degree, deteriorated the prognosis in these patients. Gerald M. Reaven was among the fi rst researchers to make an attempt at explaining this problem. He suggested that the link between type 2 diabetes and increased cardiovascular risk is not hyperglycemia itself, but insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia. These two phenomena have become the fundamental elements in the ‘X syndrome’ described by this researcher. The syndrome was later named a metabolic syndrome (MS), its name and criteria of diagnosis being subject to constant evolution which, for many years, did not allow the use of much useful information in clinical practice. In December 1999, in the new classifi cation of diabetes and the principles of its diagnosing, the WHO consultants for the fi rst time offi cially adopted a position on this matter and formulated clear criteria for diagnosing MS. This, however, did not end the dispute concerning the usefulness of MS and the approach to this syndrome. The actual prevalence of MS in the total population and among patients with type 2 diabetes as a group at the highest risk still remains unclear, and the fi gures quoted diff er considerably according to the criteria applied in its diagnosis. The objective of the study was evaluation of the presence of MS characteristics (according to the WHO) in a large group of hospitalized patients with type 2 diabetes, and of the demographic-social image of this group. The results obtained allow the presumption that patients with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome are subject to other conditionings than patients with sole diabetes. The incidence of metabolic syndrome increases with the duration of diabetes, and also depends on the gender of the patients.