Journal of Clinical Medicine (Mar 2022)

Hyperuricemia Is Associated with Significant Liver Fibrosis in Subjects with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, but Not in Subjects without It

  • Pei-Chia Yen,
  • Yu-Tsung Chou,
  • Chung-Hao Li,
  • Zih-Jie Sun,
  • Chih-Hsing Wu,
  • Yin-Fan Chang,
  • Feng-Hwa Lu,
  • Yi-Ching Yang,
  • Chih-Jen Chang,
  • Jin-Shang Wu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11051445
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 5
p. 1445

Abstract

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Liver fibrosis is associated with liver-related outcomes, yet often remains underdiagnosed in primary care settings. Hyperuricemia is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), but the relationship between hyperuricemia and liver fibrosis remains unclear. Data on individuals without NAFLD is also limited. We investigated the association between hyperuricemia and liver fibrosis in subjects with and without NAFLD. This study recruited 11,690 relevant participants from a health-checkup center. NAFLD was based on ultrasonography. Hyperuricemia was defined as serum uric acid > 6.0 mg/dL in women and >7.0 mg/dL in men. Significant liver fibrosis was diagnosed with the aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index ≥0.5. The following were positively associated with significant liver fibrosis: hyperuricemia (p = 0.001), age ≥ 65 years (p p p = 0.009), hypertension (p = 0.002), diabetes (p p p = 0.001), but not in subjects without NAFLD. In conclusion, hyperuricemia increased the associated risk of significant liver fibrosis. The positively associated risk existed in subjects with NAFLD, but not in those without it.

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