Sex differences in the association between serum uric acid levels and cardiac hypertrophy in patients with chronic kidney disease

Several studies have documented an association between serum uric acid (SUA) concentration and cardiac hypertrophy in hypertensive patients; however, the association remains unclear in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. If there is an association between SUA and hypertrophy in these patients, it is unknown whether the association is different between men and women. Our aim in this study is to determine whether SUA is associated with cardiac hypertrophy in CKD patients, focusing on any sex differences. Two hundred sixteen CKD patients (117 men and 99 women) were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Patients prescribed uric acid-lowering agents and those with congestive heart failure, valvular heart disease, or ischemic heart disease were excluded from this study. Left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) were assessed using echocardiography. The prevalence of LVH was 58% in men and 47% in women. In multivariate linear regression analysis, SUA levels did not correlate with LVMI in men, whereas SUA was independently associated with LVMI in women (β=0.27, P=0.02). Multivariate logistic regression analysis also revealed that diabetes mellitus (odds ratio (OR), 4.41; P=0.01) was associated with LVH in men, whereas age (OR, 1.13; P<0.01), hypertension (OR, 7.38; P=0.03) and SUA (OR, 1.91; P=0.03) were associated with LVH in women. In female CKD patients, SUA levels were associated with LVMI and LVH, whereas there was no association in male patients. These observations suggest that an association between SUA levels and the development of cardiac hypertrophy is more likely in women than in men.