Relationship of Serum Uric Acid Level with Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Single-Center, Hospital-Based Study from...

The role of uric acid as a risk factor for cerebrovascular disease, particularly acute ischemic stroke, is controversial and there is little information about this in our setting. This cross-sectional study was conducted at the departments of Medicine and Neurology of a tertiary hospital in Bangladesh over one year, from January 2018 to December 2018, to estimate serum uric acid (SUA) levels and assess its risk factor potential in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Forty-five patients with acute ischemic stroke were enrolled and a similar number of age and sex-matched healthy individuals were recruited for comparison. All known risk factors for stroke were searched and SUA levels were measured. SUA was higher (6.66±2.33 vs. 5.23±1.81 mg/dL; p=0.002) and hyperuricemia was more frequent (64.4% vs. 24.4%, p<0.001) in stroke patients in comparison to the controls. Hypertension was more frequent among stroke patients. In multivariate analysis, hyperuricemia [OR 4.51 (95% CI 1.67-12.16; p<0.05)] and HTN [OR 6.31 (95% CI 2.26-17.61; p<0.001)] were found to be independent risk factors of acute ischemic stroke. The stroke and control groups had no differences in age, sex, residence, education, monthly income, occupation, fasting plasma glucose, triglyceride and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. Total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were higher in the stroke patients. SUA may be used as a marker for increased risk of ischemic stroke. However, larger-scale studies are needed to get more insight into our findings.