Serum uric acid level is associated with the development of microalbuminuria in Korean men

Background: Elevated serum uric acid (UA) could be a risk factor for hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. In addition, elevated serum UA may be associated with impaired renal function. However, it is unclear whether elevated serum UA is a cause of microalbuminuria or not. Therefore, we performed a prospective cohort study of the temporal relationship between baseline elevated serum UA and the development of microalbuminuria in Korean men. Design and methods: A microalbuminuria-free cohort of 1743 healthy Korean men, who had their urine albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR) calculated for a medical check-up programme in 2005, was followed until 2010. Microalbuminuria was defined as a urine albumin-creatinine ratio between 30 and 300 μg/mg. Cox proportional hazards model was performed. Results: During 5884·6 person-years of follow-up, 96 incident cases of microalbuminuria developed between 2006 and 2010. After adjusting for multiple covariates, the hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) for incident microalbuminuria when comparing the second tertile to the third tertile of serum UA levels vs. the first tertile were 1·52 (0·86-2·70) and 2·27 (1·30-3·98), respectively (P for trend = 0.005). Conclusion: Elevated serum UA level was independent risk factor for the development of microalbuminuria during a 5-year follow-up in Korean men.