Introduction
While serum urate is associated with cardiovascular disease, the relationship between serum urate and cerebrovascular atherosclerotic diseases remains controversial. Intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD) is more prone to affect Asian population and the most common cause of ischemic stroke in China. There are few studies observed the associations between serum urate and ICAD.
Hypothesis
We assessed the hypothesis that elevated serum urate level is associated with intracranial atherosclerotic disease and serum urate is a potential risk factor for intracranial atherosclerotic disease.
Methods
Clinical data of 411 patients undergoing cerebral angiography were analyzed, and they were separated into groups according to the findings of cerebral angiography: Extracranial cerebral artery atherosclerosis (ECAA) group included 115 patients had at least one of extracranial carotid or vertebral arteries was stenosised beyond 50%; intracranial atherosclerotic disease(ICAD) group included 173 patients had at least one of intracranial large artery was stenosised beyond 50%; control group included 123 patients had none cerebral large artery stenosis. The relationship between serum urate level and ICAD was explored.
Results
The mean serum urate level of ICA group(345.50±95.83μmol/L) and ECCA group(337.71±98.72μmol/L) are significantly higher than control group(298.21±83.85μmol/L,
P
<0.01), and the ICAD group had a markedly higher rate of patients that had abnormal serum urate level than control group (the proportion of patients that serum urate level above 420μmol/L in ICAD and control group is 23.4% and 11% respectively,
P
<0.05). The proportion of ICAD patients increased significantly with the raise of serum urate level (we divided all the patients into 4 groups according to the quartiles of serum urate level, the proportion of ICAD patients of each group is 31.9%, 36.2%, 47.1% and 52.9% respectively,
χ
2
= 7.898 ,
P
=0.048). Logistic regression analysis shows that serum urate level is one of the independent risk factors of ICAD (OR=1.0007, 95%CI:1.003-1.011,
P
<0.05).
Conclusion
The elevated serum urate level is correlate with ICAD and is a underlying independent risk factors of ICAD.
A retrospective study of the relationship between serum urate level and recurrent attacks of gouty arthritis: Evidence for reduction of recurrent gouty arthritis with antihyperuricemic therapy