[Uric acid--a risk factor or atherosclerosis marker in type 2 diabetes?]

The incidence of some risk factors of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) was investigated in a group of 91 type 2 diabetics. A group of 57 patients who had a myocardial infarction was compared with a control group of 34 diabetics without clinical and electrocardiographic signs of IHD. In the group of diabetics with IHD there was a significantly higher proportion of hypertonic patients (70%), as compared with the control group (47%). The diabetics with an infraction in the case-history had a significantly higher mean age and a longer mean duration of diabetes. There was not a significant difference between the two groups as regards mean values of cholesterol, triacylglycerols, blood sugar, urea, creatinine, proteinuria and cerebrovascular attacks. As to metabolic factors, there were significantly higher mean uric acid values in the whole group with a myocardial infarction in the case-history, whereby this increase was more marked in men with IHD. Regression analysis did not reveal a significant correlation between uric acid values and the serum cholesterol or triacylglycerol levels or the incidence of hypertension. A significant biserial correlation between the presence of myocardial infarction and uric acid serum levels persisted also after elimination of the effect of age and creatinine serum levels. Based on these results and analyses of data in the literature, the authors favour the view that uric acid is rather a marker than true risk factor of atherosclerosis in type 2 diabetics.