Hyperuricaemia: relationships to body fat distribution and other components of the insulin resistance syndrome in 38-year-old healthy men and women

The aim of this work was to evaluate whether hyperuricaemia correlates with the cluster of metabolic and haemodynamic disorders closely associated with insulin resistance syndrome (IRS) in young apparently healthy individuals also, and, if so, whether hyperinsulinaemia itself or some other component of this syndrome, are independently associated with hyperuricaemia. The subjects were a random population sample of 181 (M = 94/F = 87) 38-year-old apparently healthy subjects, non-diabetic, without a history of gout. Obesity (overall and regional), serum lipid profile, uric acid, fasting glucose and insulin, 2 h insulin after glucose-load (only in men), blood pressure and main behavioural variables were measured. As expected, most parameters were statistically different between men and women. In particular, serum uric acid levels were significantly higher in the male group than in female group (348 +/- 59 mumol l-1 vs 277 +/- 59 mumol l-1, P < 0.0001). After adjustment for sex, in pooled individuals, serum uric acid concentration showed positive associations with BMI (r = 0.21; P < 0.001), waist/hip girth (WHR; r = 0.45; P < 0.0001), waist/thigh girth (WTR; r = 0.35; P < 0.0001) and subscapula/triceps skinfold ratios (STR; r = 0.30; P < 0.001). Furthermore, serum uric acid was also positively correlated with fasting insulin (r = 0.23; P < 0.001), serum triglycerides (r = 0.34; P < 0.0001), LDL cholesterol (r = 0.16; P = < 0.01), diastolic blood pressure (r = 0.26; P < 0.001), and negatively with HDL/total cholesterol ratio (r = 0.28; P < 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)