Gender-Specific Association between Serum Uric Acid and Incident Fundus Arteriosclerosis in Chinese Population: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Elevated levels of serum uric acid (SUA) were considered to be risk factors for cardiovascular disease, it has been found to be associated with increased arteriosclerosis. The aim of this study was to explore the gender specific relationship between SUA and fundus arteriosclerosis in a healthy population. In a retrospective cross-sectional study, 23474 individuals without diabetes and hypertension were included in the present study. SUA levels were cut to four groups as Q1 to Q4, according to the quartiles. The odds ratio and 95% confidence interval of different SUA levels were estimated by a binomial logistic regression model. A restrictive cubic spline method was used to estimate the dose-response relationship between SUA and fundus arteriosclerosis. Subgroup analysis was performed to find the gender-specific association between SUA and incident fundus arteriosclerosis. In males, after adjusting for confounding factors, the highest SUA level was significantly associated with the risk of incident fundus arteriosclerosis. The OR with 95%CI for Q4 was 1.44(1.18, 1.76), Q1 as a reference. Specially, for females, SUA level was not associated with the incidence of fundus arteriosclerosis. In conclusion, elevated levels of SUA were associated with the incidence of fundus arteriosclerosis in males, but not in females.

Retinal circulation time/arm-to-retina time ratio in the fluorescein angiography to evaluate retina-specific hemodynamics

“…In fact, hypertension is a known risk factor of most diseases included in the current study. [16][17][18][19][20] In contrast, RC time was not correlated with age in the current study. Fundus photographs have been used to detect the risk of systemic hypertension and arteriosclerosis in several settings, such as during health checkups.…”

Sex-specific association of serum uric acid trajectories with risk of incident retinal arteriosclerosis in Chinese population: A population-based longitudinal study

“…To our knowledge, this is the first study to date to assess the associations between SUA trajectory groups and the risk of retinal arteriosclerosis. Although there have been many studies on the prevalence of retinal arteriosclerosis (1,21,47), there are fewer studies reporting on the incidence. Our study found that the incidence of retinal arteriosclerosis in Chinese men was higher than women.…”

“…And our study showed that the association between SUA trajectory groups and retinal arteriosclerosis was statistically significant only in men. SUA has been linked to retinal arteriosclerosis in previous cross-sectional analyzes (21). The cross-sectional nature of prior investigations limits the ability to understand the temporal association of serum uric acid with retinal arteriosclerosis.…”

“…Several studies have demonstrated that increased SUA is a significant risk factor for arteriosclerosis (18,19). Whereas, some studies showed that the association between SUA concentration and atherosclerosis exists only in men and not in women (20,21), while others suggested that the relationship is much stronger in women than in men (19). Furthermore, there are also a few studies that hold opposing views, which showed that uric acid is a natural peroxynitrite scavenger (22), and is not associated with arteriosclerosis (23,24), even observed that the increase of SUA is associated with the increase of retinal arteriolar caliber in women (25).…”

“…Furthermore, there are also a few studies that hold opposing views, which showed that uric acid is a natural peroxynitrite scavenger (22), and is not associated with arteriosclerosis (23,24), even observed that the increase of SUA is associated with the increase of retinal arteriolar caliber in women (25). A previous population-based cross-sectional study has reported that increased SUA concentrations are risk factors for retinal arteriosclerosis in men but not in women (21). The study only assessed SUA levels at a single time point, and did not consider the potential impact of SUA levels experienced earlier or the changes in SUA levels over time.…”