Living in a culture of excess can have its benefits, but also its drawbacks. Diabetes is a common disease that is getting worse year over year. Unfortunately, diabetes often comes with a side of cardiovascular disease as well.
Plenty of research shows that diabetes and cardiovascular disease go hand in hand. A rare type of cardiovascular disease called aortic disease is one such example. This disease causes sudden death due to a fault in the aorta, a critical part of the heart. Due to its rarity, there is a lack of data on the disease and its relationships. A new study out of Yamagata University School of Medicine wanted to delve into this vacuum and investigate a possible relationship with something called hyperuricemia.
Hyperuricemia is when there is an excess amount of uric acid in the blood. Commonly associated with diabetes and gout, it has also been connected to cardiovascular disease. This new study examined how hyperuricemia and aortic disease were related and whether it could indicate aortic disease severity.
To do this, they tapped into Japan’s “Specific Health and Guidance in Japan” database. This database held information on over 1.8 million volunteers. The team narrowed down the data to those with hyperuricemia, diabetes, or hypertension (a common cardiovascular disease). Hyperuricemia patients specifically were more likely to be younger men, with diabetes or a cardiovascular disease.
A small group of the overall patients had an aortic disease-related death – 115 out of 1.8 million. Of these, there were several indicators of severity, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and hyperuricemia. Considering hyperuricemia is a common symptom of many diseases that also acted as indicators of the severity of aortic disease, this could be a passing coincidence.
Although the hyperuricemia-aortic disease connection might be coincidental, the team suggests it still could be an indicator of severity. The data showed the increased uric acid levels correlated with a higher risk of aortic disease death. Statistical analysis also supports hyperuricemia as an independent risk factor for aortic disease. While the team has ideas on how they may be linked, they could not go further in the scope of this study.
The study concludes, “The main finding of the present study is that hyperuricemia is an independent predictor for AD-related death. In conclusion, hyperuricemia is a novel risk factor for AD-related deaths in the general population and could be a therapeutic target to prevent sudden death.”
Sources: Nature Scientific Reports, Icahn School of Medicine
