title: Hyperuricemia and associated diseases.
abstract: After introduction of urate-lowering therapy, asympotomatic hyperuricemia was treated with allopurinol or uricosuric agents in the belief that hyperuricemia and/or gout caused chronic kidney disease. Epidemiologic studies in the 1970s, however, failed to confirm the view that hyperuricemia and gout were independent risk factors for chronic kidney disease. As a result, urate-lowering pharmacotherapy is generally not recommended at the present time in the management of asymptomatic hyperuricemia even though recent epidemiological, experimental, and clinical studies have prompted reexamination of a causal role for hyperuricemia (with or without gout) in chronic kidney disease as well as other important disorders including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome. The issue of such a role remains unresolved and this article reviews the current status of the relationship between hyperuricemia and associated disorders.
authors.affiliation: Rheumatology Section, The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA. mbecker@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: Meenakshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jolly
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D015897:Comorbidity; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D033461:Hyperuricemia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology