Possibility of association of hypertension and ischemic heart disease with primary hyperuricemia

Background The relations between serum uric acid and cardiovascular disease are complex, so in the past five decades, more than 40 epidemiologic and clinical studies involving up to 150 000 individuals have been carried out to assess this association. Objective This study aimed to investigate the association between high uric acid levels and cardiovascular disease and hypertension. Patients and methods A total of 40 patients with primary hyperuricemia selected from Internal Medicine Department, Rheumatology Unit, Assiut University Hospital, were included in this study. Age of the studied patients ranged between 23 and 87 years. None of the patients were diabetic, hypertensive, had ischemic heart disease, or were smoker. Moreover, none of them had gout, kidney diseases, or liver cirrhosis. All of the studied patients had normal abdominal ultrasonographic findings with normal urine analysis and normal BMI. Incident hypertension was defined as newly detected blood pressure of at least 140/90 mmHg, which was examined along with ischemic changes by echocardiography. Results Overall, 37.5% patients were discovered to be hypertensive and 32.5% patients had ischemic changes on echocardiography. Conclusion There is a strong and significant association between high uric acid levels and ischemic heart disease and hypertension, and this relationship is independent of traditional risk factors.