Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: correlation with hyperuricemia in a European Mediterranean population

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) are two pathologies that intersect each other. It was found that there is an association between MetS/NAFLD and hyperuricemia. The aim of our study was to demonstrate this association in a European Mediterranean population.

We compared 236 patients with NAFLD to 218 patients without NAFLD. We assessed laboratory metabolic parameters (serum uric acid - SUA, fasting glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, etc.) and the presence or absence of MetS in a retrospective, cross-sectional, case-control manner.

Analysis of the two main variables in study showed a moderate direct correlation (p< 0.01; Pearson coefficient 0.443) between SUA and NAFLD. Evaluation for SUA quartiles showed a decreased risk of NAFLD for the first and second quartiles (OR Q1 = 0.20; OR Q2 = 0.59), but increased for the third and fourth quartiles (OR Q3 = 2.22; OR Q4 = 6.97). In females, the risk of NAFLD was less compared to males for the first three quartiles of SUA, but it was more than double for the fourth quartile (OR Q1 0.21 vs 0.16; OR Q2 0.82 vs 0.45; OR Q3 2.50 vs 2.26; OR Q4 4.50 vs 9.83). In the NAFLD group, hyperuricemia was significantly correlated with sex, obesity, hypertension, and with the number of components of the MetS. In the Control group, SUA directly correlated with age, diabetes, and ALT, but not with obesity.

We have found a significant correlation between NAFLD and hyperuricemia. The higher SUA levels accompanied the risk of NAFLD.