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Metabolic Syndrome in Children and Adolescents: a Critical Approach Considering the Interaction between Pubertal Stage and Insulin Resistance

  • Pediatric Type 2 Diabetes (PS Zeitler, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Pediatricians increasingly diagnose the metabolic syndrome (MetS) in recent years to describe cardiovascular risk and to guide management of the obese child. However, there is an ongoing discussion about how to define the MetS in childhood and adolescence. Since insulin resistance—the major driver of MetS—is influenced by pubertal stage, it is questionable to use definitions for MetS in children and adolescents that do not take into account pubertal status. A metabolic healthy status in prepubertal stage does not predict a metabolic healthy status during puberty. Furthermore, cardiovascular risk factors improve at the end of puberty without treatment. However, having a uniform internationally accepted definition of the MetS for children and adolescents would be very helpful for the description of populations in different studies. Therefore, the concept of MetS has to be revisited under the influence of puberty stage.

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The author thanks Dr. Juliane Rothermel for checking the spelling and grammar in the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Pediatric Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Nutrition Medicine, Vestische Children’s Hospital, University of Witten/Herdecke, Dr. F. Steiner Str. 5, 45711, Datteln, Germany

    Thomas Reinehr

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Correspondence to Thomas Reinehr.

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Thomas Reinehr declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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The data presented in this article are based on studies that have been approved by the ethics committee of the University of Witten/Herdecke, Germany and have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Thomas Reinehr received grant support from the German Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung Obesity network: grant number 01 01GI1120A and 01GI 1120B).

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Pediatric Type 2 Diabetes

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Reinehr, T. Metabolic Syndrome in Children and Adolescents: a Critical Approach Considering the Interaction between Pubertal Stage and Insulin Resistance. Curr Diab Rep 16, 8 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-015-0695-1

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