Hyperuricaemia tied to increased LV mass index in women

Hyperuricaemia is significantly associated with the presence of increased left ventricular (LV) mass index (LVMI) in women, but not in men, reveals a recent study.

A team of investigators searched for English-language articles in the PubMed, Medline, and Cochrane Library databases from inception up to 31 March 2023. They identified studies using MeSH terms and crossing the following items: uric acid, hyperuricemia, left ventricular mass, left ventricular hypertrophy, echocardiography, female, and male.

Six studies including a total of 2,791 normotensive and hypertensive individuals met the eligibility criteria. Increasing serum uric acid (SUA) values in women correlated with progressively higher values of age, body mass index (BMI), and systolic blood pressure (SBP). This association did not appear in men.

The meta-analysis comparing LVMI between SUA groups in women revealed a higher pooled LVMI in the high versus low SUA group (standard mean difference [SMD], 0.81, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.34‒1.27; p<0.0001).

In men, however, no significant difference was observed between the low and high SUA groups (SMD, 0.27, 95 percent CI, ‒0.27 to 0.81; p=0.32).

“[A]s hyperuricaemia in the female pooled population, different from men, was associated with older age, higher BMI, and SBP, the present findings do not support an independent role of the SUA in LV remodelling process in women,” the investigators said.