Objective: To evaluate the continuous metabolic syndrome score (cMetS) in Indian children and to investigate its relationship with the risk of carotid arterial stiffness. Methods: Data on weight, height, mean arterial pressure, serum lipids, insulin, glucose, carotid intima-media thickness and stiffness parameters, that is, pulse wave velocity (PWV), elasticity modulus (Ep), stiffness index (b) and arterial compliance (AC), were assessed in 236 children (6-17 years) from Pune city, India. cMetS was computed using standardized Z-scores for metabolic syndrome (MS) components. cMetS cutoff was obtained by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis across MS components. Results: cMetS was lowest (À3.6 ± 2.0) in normal children and highest (3.3 ± 2.4) in MS children. cMetS increased progressively with number of risk components. The cutoff of cMetS yielding maximal sensitivity (80%) and specificity (94%) for predicting the presence of MS was À0.8 (area under the curve ¼ 0.921 (95% CI: 0.877-0.964)). In children with cMetS above À0.8, average PWV (4.3±0.6 m s À1 ), b (3.8±1.2) and Ep (50.4±14.5 kPa) were significantly higher than the respective values (3.7 ± 0.5 m s À1 ; 3.4 ± 0.8; 37.0 ± 10.0 kPa) in children with cMetS below À0.8, whereas AC was lower (1.2 ± 0.5 mm 2 kPa À1 ) in children with cMetS above À0.8 as against AC (1.4±0.3 mm 2 kPa À1 ) in children with cMetS below À0.8 (Po0.05), demonstrating the risk of stiffness with increasing score. Pearson's correlation coefficients of cMetS with PWV (r ¼ 0.575), b (r ¼ 0.347), AC (r ¼ À0.267) and Ep (r ¼ 0.530) were statistically significant (Po0.01). Conclusion: Results demonstrate the usefulness of cMetS over individual MS components as a better tool for assessment of atherosclerotic risk in children.