Uric acid and left ventricular hypertrophy: a gender-based meta-analysis of echocardiographic studies

AIM: Gender-based evidence on the association between serum uric acid (SUA) and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), as assessed by echocardiography, is still based on single studies. Thus, we performed a systematic meta-analysis of echocardiographic studies in order to provide an updated and comprehensive information on this issue. METHODS: The PubMed, OVID-MEDLINE, and Cochrane library databases were analyzed to search English-language articles published from the inception up to March 31, 2023. Studies were identified by using MeSH terms and crossing the following search items: 'uric acid', 'hyperuricemia', 'left ventricular mass', 'left ventricular hypertrophy', 'echocardiography', 'female', 'male'. RESULTS: Six studies including 2791 normotensive and hypertensive individuals were considered for the analysis. In women, increasing values of SUA were associated with progressively higher values of age, body mass index (BMI) and systolic blood pressure (SBP). This was not the case for men. In women, the meta-analysis comparing LV mass index (LVMI) in low versus high SUA group showed a greater pooled LVMI in the high SUA group [standard means difference (SMD): 0.81 ± 0. 24, confidence interval (CI) 0.34-1.27, P < 0.0001]. On the contrary, in men no statistical difference was found between the low group and high SUA group (SMD: 0.27 ± 0.27, CI: -0.27/0.81, P = 0.32). CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-analysis suggests that hyperuricemia portends the likely presence of increased LVMI in women but not in men. However, as hyperuricemia in the female pooled population, different from men, was associated with older age, higher BMI and SBP, the present findings do not support an independent role of the SUA in LV remodelling process in women.