High serum uric acid is associated with increased arterial stiffness in hypertension

Serum uric acid level has been found to be associated with cerebrovascular diseases. However, whether serum uric acid level is a risk factor for arterial stiffness in the hypertension population is unclear. This study was designed to determine the relationship between serum uric acid level and arterial stiffness in the hypertension population. A total of 10450 participants were evaluated for the risk of arterial stiffness. Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) was assessed, and high baPWV was determined as the highest quartile of baPWV values in a sex-specific manner. We evaluated the association between serum uric acid level and baPWV through multivariate-adjusted linear and logistic regression analyses. There was a significant difference on high baPWV between patients with quartiles of serum uric acid level in females and males (p<0.01), respectively. The odds ratios (95% CI) of the highest baPWV quartile across the sex-specific serum uric acid level were 1.0, 1.71 (1.35, 2.17), 1.75 (1.38, 2.23), and 1.95 (1.51, 2.51) in female, and 1.0, 1.33 (1.09, 1.64), 1.36 (1.11, 1.67), and 1.67 (1.36, 2.04) in male after adjusting for potential confounders. In conclusion, serum uric acid level could be considered as an important risk factor for arterial stiffness in Chinese hypertension population.