[The features of uric acid metabolism in women in climacterium]

The purpose of the study was to establish the prevalence of uric acid (UA) metabolism disturbances as a possible risk factor of urate nephropathy in women of various age groups. The authors carried out a retrospective analysis of 757 case histories and performed uricemia and uricosuria screening in women aged 18 to 69 years. The study revealed significant age-dependent elevation of uricemia, with hyperuricemia (HUE) at the age of 60 to 69 years old. The study also found age-dependent increase of HUE rate with its significant elevation in postmenopausal women (older than 50 years), compared with HUE rate in reproductive age women (18 to 49 years old) -37.9% vs. 11.4%. For the first time the researchers established UA excretion level and found a significant tendency of uricosuria to decrease with age (p < 0.016 between the groups of 40 to 49 and 50 to 59 years old). The highest rate of hyperuricosuria was revealed in women of 40 to 49 years old (22.2%), while in women of 18 to 29 and 60 to 69 years old it was 10.1% to 12.1%. For the first time the authors established the rate of hypouricosuria in women, which culminated in women older than 50 (22% of cases). The increase of HUE rate, which is most prominent in postmenopausal women, is associated with the decrease in UA excretion, accompanied by the decrease of hyperuricosuria rate and increase of hypouricosuria rate. Taking into account high prevalence of UA metabolism disturbances in women older than 50, menopause may be considered a risk factor of HUE and urate nephropathy.