Korean J Med.  2007 Jul;73(1):58-66.

The impact of uric acid and metabolic syndrome on the incidence of hypertention in a Korean population

• Chin HJ
• Na KY
• Kim Y
• Chae DW
• Kim S

Abstract

BACKGROUNDS: Uric acid has been proposed as an important risk factor for the development of primry hypertension. Many factors related to the serum uric acid level also influence the prevalence and incidence of hypertension. Especially, hyperuricemia is considered a secondary phenomena of metabolic syndrome. We evaluated the impact of uric acid and metabolic syndrome on the development of hypertension, with exclusion of the possible effects of confounding factors on both the uric acid level and the incidence of hypertension.
METHODS
We included 2,390 subjects without hypertension who had undergone multiple health check-ups at the Seoul National University Hospital during the last 10 years. We selected the JNC VII criteria for hypertension and the modified ATP III criteria for metabolic syndrome.
RESULTS
During the mean follow-up period of 54.3 months, hypertension was developed in 32.2% of the subjects. The incidence of hypertension in the high uric acid group was higher than that in the low uric acid group. Metabolic syndrome was an independent risk factor for hypetension and it was closely related to the prevalence of high uric acid level. Uric acid was also an independent risk factor for hypertension in each gender. The relationship between uric acid and hypertension was evident for the subjects without metabolic syndrome.
CONCLUSIONS
Serum uric acid was a risk factor for hypertension in each gender regardless of the absence of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndorme also contributed to the development of hypertension.

Keyword

Uric acid; Metabolic syndrome; Hypertension

MeSH Terms

Adenosine Triphosphate
Follow-Up Studies
Hypertension
Hyperuricemia
Incidence*
Prevalence
Risk Factors
Seoul
Uric Acid*
Adenosine Triphosphate
Uric Acid