Association between uric acid lowering and renal function progression: a longitudinal study

Liyi Liu; Lili You; Kan Sun; Feng Li; Yiqin Qi; Chaogang Chen; Chuan Wang; Guojuan Lao; Shengneng Xue; Juying Tang; Na Li; Wanting Feng; Chuan Yang; Mingtong Xu; Yan Li; Li Yan; Meng Ren; Diaozhu Lin

doi:10.7717/peerj.11073

Association between uric acid lowering and renal function progression: a longitudinal study

PeerJ. 2021 Mar 24:9:e11073. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11073. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Liyi Liu^#¹, Lili You^#¹, Kan Sun¹, Feng Li¹, Yiqin Qi¹, Chaogang Chen², Chuan Wang¹, Guojuan Lao¹, Shengneng Xue¹, Juying Tang¹, Na Li¹, Wanting Feng¹, Chuan Yang¹, Mingtong Xu¹, Yan Li¹, Li Yan¹, Meng Ren¹, Diaozhu Lin¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Endocrinology, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
² Department of Clinical Nutrition, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to explore the association between uric acid lowering and renal function.

Materials and methods: We conducted a population-based cohort study with 1,534 subjects for 4 years from 2012 to 2016. The population was divided into four groups according to the interquartile range of changes in serum uric acid with quartile 1 representing lower quarter. Renal function decline was defined as eGFR decreased more than 10% from baseline in 2016. Renal function improvement was defined as eGFR increased more than 10% from baseline in 2016. Cox regression analysis was used to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results: In the adjusted Cox regression models, compared to quartile 4, quartile 1 (HR = 0.64, 95% CI [0.49-0.85]), quartile 2 (HR = 0.65, 95% CI [0.50-0.84]) and quartile 3 (HR = 0.75, 95% CI [0.58-0.96]) have reduced risk of renal function decline. An increasing hazard ratio of renal function improvement was shown in quartile 1 (HR = 2.27, 95% CI [1.45-3.57]) and quartile 2 (HR = 1.78, 95% CI [1.17-2.69]) compared with quartile 4.

Conclusions: Uric acid lowering is associated with changes in renal function. The management of serum uric acid should receive attention in clinical practice and is supposed to be part of the treatment of chronic kidney disease.

Keywords: Chronic kidney disease; Population-based study; Renal function; Uric acid lowering.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant number: 2016YFC0901204) and the Special Fund Project for Science and Technology Development of Guangdong Province (Social Development, grant number: 2017B020209002). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.