The correlation between serum uric acid and diabetic kidney disease in adult-onset type 1 diabetes patients in China

BACKGROUND/AIM: To assess the correlation between serum uric acid (UA) level and diabetic kidney disease among adult-onset Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients in China. METHODS: A total of 184 patients with adult-onset T1DM between January 2014 and December 2016 were recruited, with demographics and medical data collected. Comparisons were performed between according to different serum UA gender-specific quartiles. Relationship between serum UA level with urinary ACR and eGFR was also assessed. RESULTS: Median urinary ACR and eGFR were 21.55 [10.79, 45.02] mg/g and 113.86 [88.43, 143.61] ml/min/1.73 m(2), respectively. The median UA was 257.4 (208.2–334.8) μmol/L. Participants with higher serum UA levels had higher urinary ACR and lower eGFR than those with lower UA (P < 0.05). Higher serum UA level was significantly associated with higher urinary ACR in Spearman's correlational analysis (P = 0.006) and multiple stepwise regression analysis (P = 0.013). The association between serum UA and urinary ACR was not linear, but showed a curve correlation, which also showed in the sensitivity analysis. Serum UA in the upper gender-specific quartile, was associated with lower eGFR (P < 0.001) and showed an independent negative correlation with eGFR in multiple stepwise regression analysis (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The serum UA level was negatively correlated with eGFR and had a curve correlation with urinary ACR in adult-onset T1DM patients of China. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00592-023-02119-7.