[Serum uric acid--a cardiovasular risk factor?]

Serum uric acid represents an important, independent risk factor for cardiovascular and renal disease in patients with hypertension, heart failure, or diabetes. Elevated serum uric acid is highly predictive of mortality in patients with heart failure or coronary artery disease and of cardiovascular events in patients with diabetes. Although the mechanism(s) by which uric acid may play a pathogenetic role in cardiovascular disease is unclear, hyperuricemia is associated with deleterious effects on endothelial dysfunction, oxidative metabolism, platelet adhesiveness, hemrheology, and aggregation. Whether a reduction in uric acid impacts CV and renal disease remains to be determined. However, recent findings from LIFE in hypertensive patients with LVH suggest the possibility that a treatment-induced decrease in serum uric acid may indeed attenuate cardiovascular risk. Almost one third of the treatment benefit of a losartan-based versus atenolol-based therapy on the composite endpoint (death, myocardial infarction, or stroke) may be ascribed to differences in achieved serum uric acid levels. Clearly, randomized clinical trials are needed to investigate further the long-term cardioprotective benefits issue of reducing hyperuricemia in hypertensive patients.