Recently, the Expert Committee of the American Diabetes Association proposed to decrease the lower limit for normal fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels to 5.6 mmol/L. In this regard, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of lowering the criterion for normal FPG on the identification of subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and metabolic syndrome (MS).We carried out a cross-sectional analysis of a population-based study from Durango, Mexico. This study enrolled 844 apparently healthy men and nonpregnant women aged 34 to 64 years. Diagnosis of IGT was based on 2-h post-load plasma glucose concentration > or =7.8 mmol/L and