Cardiac function and exercise capacity in patients with metabolic syndrome: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Metabolic syndrome is a pre-diabetes condition that is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. We aimed to explore how exercise capacity, cardiac structure, and function were affected in patients with metabolic syndrome. Methods: Outpatients with echocardiography and exercise stress test combined with impedance cardiography (ETT + ICGG) results available from Nov 2018 to Oct 2020 were retrospectively enrolled. Echocardiographic, ETT + ICG profiles, and exercise performance were compared between patients with metabolic syndrome and the ones without. Sensitivity analyses were performed excluding patients without established coronary heart disease and further 1:1 paired for age and gender, respectively. Multiple linear regression was used to find out related predictors for maximal metabolic equivalents (METs). Results: Three hundred and twenty-third patients were included, among whom 97 were diagnosed as metabolic syndrome. Compared to patients without metabolic syndrome, echocardiography showed that patients with metabolic syndrome had a significantly lower E/A ratio ( Conclusion: Patients with metabolic syndrome had significant structural alteration, apparent overburden of left ventricular work index, pre-and afterload, which may be the main cause of impaired exercise tolerance.