Association between Serum Uric Acid Levels and Hypertension: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Introduction: Elevated uric acid levels are frequently associated with lifestyle related diseases. Serum uric acid levels also have shown to play a very important role in the development of cardiovascular morbidity and renal disease progression in the patients with hypertension. We had undertaken this study to assess the relation between elevated uric acid levels with hypertension. Materials and Methods: 422 patient above the age of 18, with essential hypertension were included into this retrospective study. The medical records of these patients were reviewed for details such as medical history, age, sex, blood pressure at the time of diagnosis, the laboratory results for blood glucose levels, cholesterol and triglycerides, and the uric acid level. 50 healthy males and females with no hypertension and normal blood pressure and of similar age group were used as controls. Results: The number of males were 54.7% and females were 45.3%. Many of the patients who had hypertension had a family history of elevated blood pressure. There was no significant difference in the age groups and the BMI of the patients with the controls while, there was significant difference in the urea creatinine, triglycerides and cholesterol levels among the patients with elevated uric acid and hypertension, in both males and females than the respective controls. Higher uric acid levels were observed in 64% of the males and 59% females. Conclusion: We have observed a high prevalence of elevated serum uric acid levels among the patients with hypertension, irrespective of their age and gender with a positive correlation between the SUA and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Keywords: Serum Uric Acid, Hypertension, association