Uric Acid: An Old Dog with New Tricks?

[摘要] Diseases traditionally associated with hyperuricemia include acute urate nephropathy, gouty arthropathy, and nephrolithiasis. In recent years, however, understanding of additional adverse effects of hyperuricemia has been advanced. Early scientific literature suggested an association between serum urate concentration and incidence of cardiovascular disease, but the field lay relatively dormant until a flurry of papers associated hyperuricemia with development of hypertension (1), microalbuminuria (2,3), the metabolic syndrome (4), endothelial dysfunction (5), and target organ damage from hypertension, including left ventricular hypertrophy (2,6). The Bogalusa Heart Study (1), an observational study that followed a cohort of 577 children into adulthood, found that serum urate levels in childhood correlated positively with childhood and adulthood systolic and diastolic BP; the correlations were particularly significant with women (1). While these findings are compelling, they can provide only associations with the human condition and it remains unclear whether elevation of the serum urate contributes to or merely reflects these underlying disorders.

[学科分类] 泌尿医学

[关键词] Bone marrow necrosis;Sickle cell disease;Hyperhemolysis syndrome