The relationship between visceral fat area and uric acid stone formation

Abstract

Objective To investigate the relationship between uric acid stone formation and visceral fat area based on computed tomography. Methods As many as 247 patients admitted to our hospital were retrospectively reviewed from January 2017 to January 2018. There were 161 males (65.2%) and 86 females (34.8%). The average age was 51 (20-88 years). According to the results of stone analysis after surgery, the patients were divided into uric acid stone group and non-uric acid stone group. According to the abdominal CT scan, Image J software was used to measure the anthropometric measurements like waist circumference, total fat area (TFA), and visceral fat area (VFA), and subcutaneous fat area (SFA). The clinical characteristics of different stone components were compared. An univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify the independent factors associated with uric acid stone formation. Different anthropometric measurements were compared by using the area under receiver operating characteristic curve. Results The uric acid stones in high VFA group (28/110; 25.5%) were obviously more frequent than that in the low VFA group (7/137; 5.1%) (P<0.05). The results of the univariate logistic regression analysis showed that age, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, TFA, waist circumference, body mass index (BMI), VFA, uric acid, and urine pH were statistically significant (P<0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that diabetes (OR=3.408, 95%CI 1.123-10.340, P=0.030), VFA (OR=6.740, 95%CI 1.951-23.279, P=0.003), uric acid (OR=3.182, 95%CI 1.120-9.040, P=0.030) and urine pH (OR=4.052, 95%CI 1.095-14.989, P=0.036) were independent factors associated with uric acid stone formation. The area under the curve of TFA, waist circumference, BMI, VFA, and SFA were 0.659, 0.665, 0.632, 0.723 and 0.544, respectively. Conclusions Diabetes, VFA, uric acid and urine pH are independent factors influencing the formation of uric acid stones. Compared with other anthropometric measurements such as TFA, waist circumference, BMI, and SFA, VFA can better assess abdominal obesity and predict the formation of uric acid stones. Key words: Visceral fat area; Uric acid stone; Metabolic syndrome; Abdominal obesity