Elevated serum uric acid and risk of cardiovascular or all-cause mortality in maintenance hemodialysis patients: A meta-analysis

Background and aims: Studies have shown inconsistent results about the association between serum uric acid (SUA) levels and mortality in hemodialysis patients. We performed this meta-analysis to determine whether higher SUA values comprised a risk factor of cardiovascular or all-cause mortality in maintenance hemodialysis patients. Methods and results: Pubmed, Embase and the Cochrane library were searched up to August 31, 2020 for the longitudinal studies that investigated the association between the elevated SUA and cardiovascular or all-cause mortality risk in maintenance hemodialysis patients. Pooled adjusted hazard ratios (HR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using a random-effects model. We included 10 studies with an overall sample of 264,571 patients with hemodialysis in this meta-analysis. Patients with the highest SUA were associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular mortality (HR = 0.72, 95% CI 0.59-0.87) compared with patients with the lowest SUA after adjustment for potential confounders in a random effects model. Moreover, for each increase of 1 mg/dl of SUA, the overall risks of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality decreased by 6% and 9%, respectively (HR = 0.94, 95% CI 0.90-0.99; HR = 0.91, 95% CI 0.89-0.94). Conclusion: Elevated SUA levels are strongly and independently associated with lower risk of cardiovascular mortality in maintenance hemodialysis patients. More designed studies, especially randomized controlled trials, should be conducted to determine whether high SUA levels is an independent risk factor of all-cause mortality in hemodialysis patients. (C) 2020 The Italian Diabetes Society, the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis, the Italian Society of Human Nutrition and the Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Federico II University. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The meta-analysis suggests that higher serum uric acid levels in maintenance hemodialysis patients are negatively correlated with cardiovascular mortality risk, and every 1 mg/dl increase in serum uric acid decreases the overall risks of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.