Mini Review: Reappraisal of Uric Acid in Chronic Kidney Disease

Hyperuricemia predicts the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and metabolic complications, but whether it has a causal role has been controversial. This is especially true given the 2 recently conducted randomized controlled trials that failed to show a benefit of lowering uric acid in type 1 diabetes-associated CKD and subjects with stage 3-4 CKD. While these studies suggest that use of urate-lowering drugs in unselected patients is unlikely to slow the progression of CKD, there are subsets of subjects with CKD where reducing uric acid synthesis may be beneficial. This may be the case in patients with gout, hyperuricemia (especially associated with increased production), and urate crystalluria. Here, we discuss the evidence and propose that future clinical trials targeting these specific subgroups should be performed.

Automated summary

Hyperuricemia can predict the development of chronic kidney disease and metabolic complications, and while recent trials have failed to show benefits of lowering uric acid in certain CKD patients, there may still be subsets where reducing uric acid synthesis could be beneficial, such as in patients with gout, high uric acid levels, and urate crystalluria. Future clinical trials should target these specific subgroups for further investigation.