Physicians are increasingly focusing on a specific menu of test results to help determine a patient’s risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes. The criteria include blood pressure and the levels of glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol and certain proteins in the blood. Even the size of a patient’s waist — the thinner the better — is factored in. Score too high in too many categories, and you’ll be diagnosed with a condition doctors now call “metabolic syndrome.” The American Heart Association says the estimated 50 million Americans who have it are at increased risk of contracting heart disease, plaque buildup in artery walls, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

“Before, we didn’t lump all of these things together,” says Dr. Marianela Areces, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Weston. “But now we recognize metabolic syndrome as a separate risk factor.”

The American Heart Association and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute say patients with three or more of the following factors have metabolic syndrome:

» Waist size: 40 inches or more for men; 35 inches or more for women

» Triglycerides: 150 mg/dL or higher

» HDL (good cholesterol): Less than 40 mg/dL for men; less than 50 mg/dL for women

» Blood pressure: 130/85 or higher

» Fasting glucose: 100 mg/dL or higher

Links: Given your height, do you weigh what you should? Check out the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute’s body mass index calculator and more information about metabolic syndrome. Go to the Links page.