Is hyperuricemia another facet of the metabolic syndrome?
BACKGROUND
Hyperuricemia is commonly associated with obesity, glucose intolerance, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The resemblance of the metabolic syndrome and hyperuricemia has led to the suggestion that hyperuricemia is a part of the metabolic syndrome. The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of uric acid (UA) as an additional component of the metabolic syndrome in middle-aged men.


METHODS
In total, 393 male participants, aged 45-60 years, were recruited from a professional health evaluation program. Anthropometric measurements and blood pressure (BP) were taken after an overnight fast. Fasting blood samples were collected for the measurements of glucose, UA, and lipid profile. Logistic regression models were fitted to examine the relationship between UA and the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome. Factor analysis was performed to explore the relationship between UA and the components of the metabolic syndrome.


RESULTS
The diagnosis of the metabolic syndrome was significantly associated with waist circumference (WC), glucose, triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), systolic BP, and liver enzyme levels, but not associated with UA levels. The sensitivity of hyperuricemia (serum UA > or = 7.0 mg/dL) for the diagnosis of the metabolic syndrome was 58.0% and the specificity was 55.3%. In factor analysis, UA aggregated with body mass index, WC, glucose, log TG, and HDL-C as a metabolic factor. Systolic and diastolic BP were loaded on a second factor separately. The model loaded with UA explained a similar proportion of the total variance (56.9%), as did the model loaded without UA (62.5%).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that the contribution of UA as an additional component of the syndrome seems to be insignificant. We propose that hyperuricemia might not be an important facet for the understanding of the underlying structure of the metabolic syndrome.
Liou
Teh-Ling
TL
Section of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
Lin
Ming-Wei
MW
Hsiao
Li-Chuan
LC
Tsai
Ting-Ting
TT
Chan
Wan-Leong
WL
Ho
Low-Tone
LT
Hwu
Chii-Min
CM
D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood; D015992:Body Mass Index; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D033461:Hyperuricemia / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000209:etiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D013599:Systole; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood; D014527:Uric Acid / Q000097:blood; D049629:Waist-Hip Ratio
D008076:Cholesterol, HDL; D014280:Triglycerides; D014527:Uric Acid; D000410:Alanine Transaminase