Serum uric acid and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in non-hypertensive chinese adults: the cardiometabolic risk in chinese (CRC) study

J. Liang, Y. Pei, Y. Gong, X.-K. Liu, L.-J. Dou, C.-Y. Zou, Q.-Q. Qiu, M.-Q. Yang, L. Qi

Department of Endocrinology, Xuzhou Central Hospital, Xuzhou Clinical School of Xuzhou Medical College; Affiliated Hospital of Southeast University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China. mwlj521@163.com

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• Cardiology

OBJECTIVE: The causal relationship between serum uric acid (SUA) level and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has not yet been clarified. The objective of the study was to determine the association between SUA and NAFLD, as well as assess the interactions between SUA and other metabolic risk factors regarding NAFLD.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study samples related to a community-based health examination survey conducted in Central China. Initially, a total of 24,878 patients with medical examination were included. After excluding the individuals with confounding factors, the remaining 21,798 subjects with biomarkers available were included in the present study.

RESULTS: The data show that the risk of NAFLD significantly increased with the elevated SUA levels. Further adjustments for sex, age, and other confounding metabolic factors did not change the increasing trend of NAFLD risk. The odds ratios [ORs, 95% confidence interval (CI)] of NAFLD across the increasing quintiles of SUA were 1.00, 1,530 (1.174-1.995), 2.24 (1.714-2.886), 2.636 (2.019-3.441), and 3.714 (2.828-4.877) (p for trend < 0.0001). Also, significant interaction was found between SUA and prehypertension in relation to the NAFLD risk (p for interaction < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: SUA was significantly associated with NAFLD risk, independent of other metabolic risk factors, and SUA also had significant interaction with prehypertension regarding the risk of NAFLD.

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