Published Online
on March 21, 2005

A more recent version of this article appeared on May 1, 2005

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Submitted on January 20, 2005
Revised on February 6, 2005

Serum Uric Acid and Target Organ Damage in Primary Hypertension

Francesca Viazzi; Denise Parodi; Giovanna Leoncini; Angelica Parodi; Valeria Falqui; Elena Ratto; Simone Vettoretti; Gian Paolo Bezante; Massimo Del Sette; Giacomo Deferrari; and Roberto Pontremoli^*

From the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Genoa and the Department of Cardionephrology, Azienda Ospedaliera San Martino, Italy.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: roberto.pontremoli{at}unige.it.

Abstract--The role of serum uric acid as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular and renal morbidity is controversial. A better understanding of its relationship with preclinical organ damage may help clarify the mechanism(s) implicated in the development of early cardiovascular disease. We evaluated the association between uric acid and the presence and degree of target organ damage in 425 (265 males, 160 females) middle-aged, untreated patients with essential hypertension. Left ventricular mass index and carotid intima-media thickness were assessed by ultrasound scan. Albuminuria was measured as the albumin to creatinine ratio in 3 nonconsecutive first morning urine samples. Overall, patients with target organ damage had significantly higher levels of serum uric acid as compared with those without it (presence versus absence of left ventricular hypertrophy, P=0.04; carotid abnormalities, P<0.05; microalbuminuria, P<0.004; and at least 1 versus no organ damage, P<0.03). In women, the occurrence and severity of each target organ damage we examined increased progressively from the lower to the upper serum uric acid tertiles (P<0.01). After adjustment for body mass index, age, creatinine clearance, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, each standard deviation increase in serum uric acid entailed a 75% higher risk of having cardiac hypertrophy and a 2-times greater risk of having carotid abnormalities. These results support the role of serum uric acid as an independent, modifiable marker of cardiovascular damage.

Key words: atherosclerosis • gender • hypertension • risk factors • uric acid

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