A study on association of serum uric acid and blood pressure in hypertensives at a tertiary care centre

Abstract

Hypertension(HTN) is the most common and significant cardiovascular disease because of its prevalence and severity of the damage to the mankind globally. Hyperuricemia, a condition of increased levels of Serum Uric acid (UA) has been proposed to have an association with hypertension in various studies. In certain studies, serum uric acid levels has been found to be an independent predictor for developing hypertension. On the basis of the above observations, we have proposed to the present study to compare the relationship between serum UA and hypertension in a single cohort with adjustment of all possible confounding factors.A total of 245 subjects were enrolled in this study during a regular routine health checkup. All subjects were informed about the study aims Individuals having a known history of gout and cardiac or severe renal diseases and patients who are already under medication for anti-hyperuricemic were excluded from the study. General information like Name, Age, Sex, Occupation, Address along with history of any drug intake and anthropometric indices - body weight (BW), body height (BH), hip circumference (HC), waist circumference (WC), and lifestyle information have been obtained. The data has been arranged in tables with mean ± SD for further analysis. The data is analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23. The difference between the groups for baseline variables was done by independent sample t-test (two-tailed). Pearson’s correlation coefficient test was performed to assess the interrelationships between baseline variables and SUA concentrations. The differences for the variables among the groups was determined by using One-way ANOVA.Of the 245 subjects, mean age of the participants was 42.4 ± 8.4 years (range 18–70 years). There was no significant difference in the mean levels of Height, Weight and BMI between the two groups. Mean levels of WC, HC were significantly different between two group (p < 0.05) subjects. The mean levels of SBP and DBP were also significantly more in the hypertensive subjects (p < 0.001). In Pearson’s correlation coefficient test, SUA levels were significantly related with SBP and DBP. In this study, we have observed comparatively a stronger relationship for SUA concentration with hypertension and prehypertension in the participants. The extended mechanism for the effect of SUA on hypertension is yet to be elucidated. There are some hypotheses partly explain the association between SUA and high blood pressure. One of the possible mechanism might be uric acid deposition on the blood vessels walls activates the renin-angiotensin system, suppress the liberate of carbon monoxide, enhance inflammation, and leads to vasoconstriction on later stage, which consequently leads to hyperplasia and incidence of hypertension. Another possibility involving oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction associated with high SUA levels may contribute to high blood pressure.