Risk of the Metabolic Syndrome according to the Level of the Uric Acid

Kim, Seong Keol; Park, Hyun Ah; Nam, Ok Yeon; Beck, Seung Ho; Whang, Dong Hee; Hwang, Ue Kyong; Kim, Cheol Hwan; Lee, Sung Hee; Kang, Jae Heon

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Many epidemiological studies have reported that hyperuricemia was related to cardiovascular diseases, insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome. However, there are few studies on the relationship between serum uric acid concentration and the metabolic syndrome among Korean adults. We performed this study to assess the relationship between serum uric acid level and the factors of the metabolic syndrome among healthy Korean men.
METHODS
We consecutively selected 206 male subjects who underwent health screening examination from February 2005 to April 2005 at the Health Promotion Center of Seoul Paik Hospital. Insulin resistance measured by HOMA-IR and the metabolic syndrome factors were assessed by the quartiles of serum uric acid level.
RESULTS
Body mass index (P<0.001), systolic blood pressure (P=0.015), diastolic blood pressure (P=0.015), fasting insulin (P=0.038), and triglyceride (P=0.005) level increased and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (P=0.008) decreased significantly from the lowest quartile to the highest quartile of seum uric acid level. The proportions of the metabolic syndrome in each quartile were 13.7%, 15.7%, 18.9%, and 36.0%, respectively (P=0.007). However, insulin resistance measured by HOMA-IR was not associated with serum uric acid. When compared with the lowest quartile group, the odds ratio for the metabolic syndrome of the second, the third, and the highest quartile groups were 1.42 (0.39-5.14), 1.14 (0.33-3.92), and 4.00 (1.15-13.89), respectively.
CONCLUSION
We found that high uric acid level was significantly related to the factors of the metabolic syndrome and increased the risk of the metabolic syndrome. Further prospective studies with large sample size are necessary to establish whether uric acid level can pose as a risk factor for the development of the metabolic syndrome.