Introduccion: el sindrome metabolico (SM) es una agrupacion de multiples factores de riesgo cardiovascular, que se ha tornado mundialmente epidemico. Objetivo: comparar los criterios actuales para su diagnostico, en pacientes con SM, familiares sanos en primer grado de consanguinidad (FS) y controles sanos (S), en Pereira, Colombia. Metodologia: estudio descriptivo de corte transversal. Se seleccionaron 116 personas para evaluar los parametros de quimica sanguinea, perimetro abdominal y presion arterial. Resultados: la poblacion de estudio se clasifico en los grupos SM (n=53), FS (n=36) y S (n=27). El criterio mas prevalente fue el perimetro abdominal, en los grupos SM (96,2%) y FS (38,8%), mientras que en el grupo S fue el HDLc (25,9%). La diferencia en el perimetro abdominal entre el grupo FS (38,8%) y el S (14,8%) fue significativa (0.24, IC: 95% 0,04 - 0,44). Conclusion: este estudio encontro que el criterio perimetro abdominal podria emplearse para la deteccion temprana de personas con riesgo de desarrollar SM. Abstract Introduction: the metabolic syndrome (MS) is a cluster of multiple cardiovascular risk factors which has become epidemic around the world. Objective: compare the currently accepted MS diagnosis criteria among patients with MS (SM), first-degree healthy relatives (FS) and healthy controls (S) in the city of Pereira (Colombia). Methods: this was a cross-sectional study in which 116 persons were evaluated for blood chemistry, waist circumference and blood pressure. Results: population was classified as SM (n=53), FS (n=36) and S (n=27) groups. The most prevalent criterion was waist circumference (96.2%) for SM and FS (38.8%) groups, but for S was HDLc (25.9%). The waist circumference difference between FS (38.8%) and S (14.8%) groups was significant (0.24, CI 95% 0.04 to 0.44). Conclusion: this study found that waist circumference criterion could be used for early detection of people at risk for developing MS. Keywords: Metabolic Syndrome; Waist Circumference; Hypertension; Diabetes Mellitus; Triglycerides; HDLc.