Hyperuricemia and severity of coronary artery disease in patients undergoing selective percutaneous coronary intervention

Background Hyperuricemia as an independent predictor for presence of coronary artery disease(CAD)has been studied insufficiently. In this study, we evaluated the predictive value of hyperuricemia for the severity of coronary artery disease. Methods A total of 683 patients undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were prospectively observed and were divided into two groups (hyperuricemic group, n = 216, and normouricemic group, n = 467). Hyperuricemia (HUA) was defined as an serum uric acid level > 7 mg/dL in males and > 6 mg/dL in females. Severe CAD was defined as triple-vessel disease or left main disease. Results One hundred and eighteen (55%) severe CAD occurred in the hyperuricemic group and 211(45%) in the normouricemic group (P = 0.02). The median uric acid levels of the severe CAD patients were significantly higher than secondary CAD (single vessel disease or two-vessel disease) patients (379 ± 111 vs 360 ± 105, P = 0.02). Multivariate logistic regression analysis, after adjusting for potential confounding factors, showed that HUA was an independent risk factor of coronary artery disease (odds radio = 1.63, 95% confidence interval, 1.02-2.61, P = 0.040). Moiety of in-hospital complications such as acute heart failure (17.6% vs. 6.2%, P < 0.001), hypotension (3.8%, vs. 1.3%, P = 0.04), contrast induced nephropathy (CIN) (7.4% vs. 1.3%, P < 0.001) after PCI, were significantly higher in hyperuricemic groups. Conclusions Hyperuricemia was an independent predictor for severe coronary artery disease (triple-vessel disease or left main disease).