Serum uric acid level and bone mineral density in Iraqi postmenopausal women

Background: The role of uric acid (UA) in bone mineral density (BMD) has been investigated with diverse results. Aim of the work: To study the relation between serum UA and BMD in Iraqi postmenapausal women. Patients and methods: The study involved 151 Iraqi postmenapausal women recruited from Baghdad Medical City. Serum UA was measured on two occasions and subjects were categorized into four quartiles according to the serum concentrations. BMD was measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and T-score calculated at the lumbar spine (L1-L4) and right femoral neck. Results: The mean age of the subjects was 53 +/- 9.1 years, body mass index was 31 +/- 3.68 and the menopause duration was 8.13 +/- 5.86 years. Their mean serum UA level was 4.72 +/- 1.35 mg/dl. 56 (37.1%) subjects were osteopenic and 34 (22.5%) were osteoporotic. The mean BMD increased significantly across the quartiles; the highest was in the fourth UA quartile (highest) for both the lumbar spine and right femoral neck. The percentage of women with osteoporosis and osteopenia were lowest in the fourth UA quartile. UA was significantly associated with BMD at L1-L4 spine (p = 0.04) and right femoral neck (p = 0.004) and with the corresponding T-scores (p = 0.008 and p = 0.01 respectively). After adjusting for confounding factors for UA on BMD, only the association of UA with L1-L4 BMD (beta = 0.03, p = 0.01) and T-value (beta = 0.32, p = 0.009) was still significant. Conclusion: Higher serum UA levels were associated with higher BMDs at the lumbar spine suggesting that it may have a beneficial effect on the bone density. (C) 2018 Egyptian Society of Rheumatic Diseases. Publishing services provided by Elsevier B.V.