Uric acid levels in arthralgia patients

Abstract

Background: Uric acid is often associated with gout, but recent studies have attracted attention to a potential connection between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and uric acid. It has been shown that RA patients with hyperuricemia have a milder joint disease, and that it is more common for patients who do not have RA-specific autoantibodies to have urate crystal deposits in their joints. Objectives: To examine the connection between uric acid and RA and to find out if there is a connection between uric acid and RA-specific autoantibodies or survivin. Material and methods: 338 patients were collected from the material of 1743 patients with arthralgia visiting the rheumatology clinic at Sahlgrenska university hospital during one year. All patients included had at least one measured serum uric acid level. Hyperuricemia was defined by the levels >400 mol/l for females and >480 mol/l for males. The patients were divided into groups depending on gender, rheumatic diagnose, antibodies, survivin and uric acid level. Symptoms of gout were investigated in 152 patients. Results: 34 % of all studied patients included had hyperuricemia. 95 % of the patients diagnosed with gout had hyperuricemia. Prevalence of hyperuricemia was higher in males than females (P<0.0002). Among the females with hyperuricemia, RA was the most common diagnosis (40%). However, symptoms indicating gout, were significantly less in RA patients compared to gout (females P=0.0006, males P<0.0001). Regardless of antibodies and presence of survivin, the prevalence of hyperuricemia was similar (9/25 vs 44/114, P=0.82 for males and 11/33 vs 51/166, P=0.76 for females). There was no difference in uric acid level depending on rheumatic diagnose, except for gout which had significantly higher levels of uric acid (P<0.0001). Conclusions: Hyperuricemia was attributed to the diagnosis of gout and showed its specificity regardless of autoantibody and serum survivin profile. Key words: Rheumatoid arthritis, uric acid