Relationship between Serum Uric Acid and Vascular Function and Structure Markers and Gender Difference in a Real-World Population of China-From Beijing Vascular Disease Patients Evaluation Study (BEST) Study

Aim: The study was done to establish the relationship between serum uric acid (UA) and vascular function and structure parameters including carotid femoral pulse wave velocity (CF-PWV), carotid radial pulse wave velocity (CR-PWV), cardio ankle vascular index (CAVI), ankle brachial index (ABI), and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), and the gender difference in a real-world population from China. Methods: A total of 979 subjects were enrolled (aged 60.86 ± 11.03 years, male 416 and female 563). Value of UA was divided by 100 (UA/100) for analysis. Results: Body mass index (BMI), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), UA, and UA/100 were significantly higher in males compared with females (all p < 0.05); pulse pressure (PP), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were lower in males than females (all p < 0.05). All vascular parameters including CF-PWV, CR-PWV, CAVI, ABI, and CIMT were higher in males than females (all p < 0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that UA/100 was independently positively linearly correlated with CAVI (B= 0.143, p = 0.001) and negatively correlated with ABI in the male population (B = −0.012, p = 0.020). In people with higher UA, the risk of higher CF-PWV was 1.593 (p < 0.05). Conclusions: 1. All vascular parameters were higher in males than females. There was no gender difference in the relationship between UA and vascular markers except in ABI. 2. UA was independently linearly correlated with CAVI. 3. In people with higher UA level, the risk of higher CF-PWV increased. Therefore, higher UA may influence the vascular function mainly instead of vascular structure.