The therapy of lowering uric acid in patients with chronic kidney disease (Part 1)
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is present in more than 10% of the US general
population, and it is estimated that approximately 850 million people worldwide are affected by this type of kidney disease.
The high prevalence of CKD has pushed efforts to find the risk factors of kidney
disease, which can be treated.
Uric acid is a purine metabolite that has numerous effects, including vascular
smooth muscle cell proliferation, inhibition of nitric oxide production, and oxidative stress, among others.
High uric acid may result to harmful organ effects such as elevated urate levels mild
stroke, heart attack, and heart failure among others
High uric acid level is linked with hypertension, which could have an effect on the kidneys,
in addition to direct effects on kidney structures.
The link of high uric acid may lead to the progression of an existing case of CKD. Also,
healthy individuals may end up with CKD if they have high uric acid levels.
It is not clear if lowering the uric acid levels will lower the chances of CKD progression
but the idea is that new onset of CKD may be prevented if the urate levels are controlled.
We will be doing a more in-depth discussion about this topic in our next column.