Combination of Uric Acid and Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines in Discriminating Patients with Gout from Healthy Controls

Abstract

Xuwen Zha,1,* Bo Yang,2,* Guangyun Xia,1 Shan Wang1 1Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, The First People’s Hospital of Hefei, Binhu Hospital of Hefei, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230000, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Burn & Plastic Surgery, The First People’s Hospital of Hefei, Binhu Hospital of Hefei, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230000, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Guangyun Xia; Shan Wang, Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, The First People’s Hospital of Hefei, Binhu Hospital of Hefei, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230000, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: The aim of present study was to explore whether the combination of serum uric acid and pro-inflammatory cytokines could improve the accuracy of diagnosis of gout.Methods: A total of 94 patients with gout were selected as the patient group, and 52 healthy subjects were selected as the control group. Serum levels of uric acid and pro-inflammatory cytokines (C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)) were measured in both groups. Correlation between serum uric acid and pro-inflammatory cytokines was assessed using Pearson correlation analysis. The area under curve (AUC) of CRP, IL-6, TNF-α combined with uric acid for the diagnosis of gout were evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve method.Results: Compared with the control group, the levels of serum uric acid, CRP, TNF-α and IL-6 were significantly increased in the patients. Moreover, there was a positive correlation between serum uric acid and CRP (r = 0.179, P = 0.033), IL-6 (r = 0.194, P = 0.039), and TNF-α (r = 0.496, P < 0.001) levels. Furthermore, the AUCs of CRP, IL-6, TNF-α combined with uric acid level for the diagnosis of gout were 0.932, 0.884, and 0.972, respectively. Additionally, the AUC for the combination of uric acid, CRP, and TNF-α was 0.982 in discriminating patients with gout from healthy volunteers.Conclusion: The combination of serum uric acid and pro-inflammatory cytokines could improve the accuracy of diagnosis of gout.Keywords: gout, uric acid, pro-inflammatory cytokine, diagnosis

Keywords

• gout
• uric acid
• pro-inflammatory cytokine
• diagnosis