Association between uric acid and carotid atherosclerosis in elderly persons.
OBJECTIVE
Several cohort studies have shown a link between serum uric acid (SUA) and subsequent cardiovascular disease. However, such an association did not remain significant after adjusting for concomitant risk factors for atherosclerosis in some studies. Thus, the role of SUA as an independent risk factor remains controversial. We therefore investigated the association between SUA and sclerotic lesions of common carotid atherosclerosis.


METHODS
We evaluated sclerotic lesions of the common carotid arterial intima-media thickness (IMT) by ultrasonography in 398 men aged 74+/-8 (range, 60-97) years and 521 women aged 75+/-8 (range, 60-104) years. To investigate the relation between SUA and various factors, all subjects were divided into three groups based on the tertile of SUA.


RESULTS
Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis using IMT as an objective variable, adjusted by various risk factors as explanatory variables showed that SUA [B, 0.0099; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.0022-0.0175] was a significant independent contributing factor along with known risk factors such as age, sex, smoking status, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, antihypertensive drug use, HDL-cholesterol, and LDL-cholesterol. Multiple logistic regression analysis for carotid IMT as a tertile of SUA and dependent variables showed that the adjusted odds ratio was 1.25 (95% CI, 0.87-1.78) for those in the middle tertile (4.2-5.5 mg/dl), and 1.66 (95% CI, 1.16-2.39) for those in the highest tertile (5.6-14.1 mg/dl) compared to that for subjects in the lowest tertile of SUA levels (0.51-4.1 mg/dl).


CONCLUSIONS
We suggest that SUA is a risk factor or marker for ultrasonographically determined IMT.
Kawamoto
Ryuichi
R
Department of Internal Medicine, Seiyo Municipal Nomura Hospital, Ehime, Japan.
Tomita
Hitomi
H
Oka
Yuichiro
Y
Kodama
Akihiro
A
Ohtsuka
Naoko
N
Kamitani
Atsushi
A
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000097:blood* / Q000145:classification / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D014463:Ultrasonography; D014527:Uric Acid / Q000097:blood*
D014527:Uric Acid