Stroke risk 'increases with high uric acid'
High levels of uric acid, a common symptom of gout, could increase the risk of suffering a stroke, new research has suggested.
The chemical causes gout when it builds up and crystallises in the joints. This causes patients to experience acute pain and inflammation in affected areas.
Now a team of researchers led by Dr Seo Young Kim of the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia in the US have found that there is a small increase in the risk of suffering a stroke in people with high uric acid, also known as hyperuricemia.
The study authors wrote in the medical journal Arthritis Care and Research that their analysis was spurred on by a desire "to assess the association between hyperuricemia and risk of stroke incidence and mortality".
"Hyperuricemia is hypothesised to be a risk factor for stroke and other cardiovascular disease, but, to date, results from observational studies are conflicting," they added.
The researchers reviewed 16 previous studies involving a total of 238,449 people and found that there was a "significantly higher" risk of suffering a stroke in patients with hyperuricemia.
After looking at other risk factors for stroke, like age, diabetes, cholesterol and hypertension, hyperuricemia was still found to be associated with an elevated risk of stroke.
"Hyperuricemia may modestly increase the risks of both stroke incidence and mortality," Dr Kim and colleagues concluded.
"Future research is needed to determine whether lowering uric acid level has any beneficial effects on stroke."
© Adfero Ltd
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