Association of hyperuricemia with disease severity in chronic hepatitis C patients

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with extrahepatic manifestations such as metabolic abnormalities. The association between chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and uric acid levels has rarely been investigated. We aimed to evaluate the levels of serum uric acid in CHC patients. METHODS: Three hundred and seventy-three histologically confirmed CHC patients who were scheduled to receive antiviral therapy were consecutively enrolled, and 746 age- and sex-matched uninfected controls were included for comparison. Hyperuricemia was defined as a uric acid level > 7 mg/dL in men and > 6.0 mg/dL in women. RESULTS: Hyperuricemia was identified in 15.8% of the CHC patients. The uric acid levels did not differ between the CHC patients and the controls (5.54 ± 1.20 mg/dL vs. 5.45 ± 1.45 mg/dL, P = 0.3). Among the 373 CHC patients, the factors associated with hyperuricemia included body mass index (BMI) (OR/CI: 1.13/1.04–1.21, P = 0.003) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (OR/CI: 0.98/0.97–1.00, P = 0.02). Logistic regression analysis revealed that the factors associated with hyperuricemia in male patients included BMI (OR/CI: 1.12/1.05–1.30, P = 0.006) and advanced fibrosis (F3-4) (OR/CI: 0.27/0.09–0.83, P = 0.02), whereas the factors associated with hyperuricemia in female patients included eGFR (OR/CI: 0.97/0.95–0.99, P = 0.02) and diabetes (OR/CI: 3.03/1.11–8.25, P = 0.03). There was a significant decreasing trend of serum uric acid levels with the progression of fibrotic stages among male patients (6.21 ± 1.03 mg/dL 5.82 ± 1.16 mg/dL and 5.44 ± 1.28 mg/dL in stages F0-2, F3, and F4, respectively, trend P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Hyperuricemia was inversely associated with liver disease severity in CHC male patients.