Association Between Serum Uric Acid and Lung Function in People with and without Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Huajing Yang; Zihui Wang; Shan Xiao; Cuiqiong Dai; Xiang Wen; Fan Wu; Jieqi Peng; Heshan Tian; Yumin Zhou; Pixin Ran

doi:10.2147/COPD.S356797

Association Between Serum Uric Acid and Lung Function in People with and without Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2022 May 5:17:1069-1080. doi: 10.2147/COPD.S356797. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Huajing Yang^#¹, Zihui Wang^#¹, Shan Xiao¹, Cuiqiong Dai¹, Xiang Wen¹, Fan Wu^{1

2}, Jieqi Peng¹, Heshan Tian¹, Yumin Zhou^{1

2}, Pixin Ran^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ National Center for Respiratory Medicine, State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
² Guangzhou Laboratory, Bio-Island, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: The effect of serum uric acid (SUA) levels on lung function in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) people remained unclear. We aimed to investigate the association between SUA and lung function.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed to measure the SUA levels and lung function in 2797 consecutive eligible individuals. Of these, individuals in our study were divided into two groups, the COPD group (n=1387) and the non-COPD group (n=1410). The diagnosis of COPD is defined as post-bronchodilator first second of forced expiratory volume (FEV₁)/forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio of less than 0.70. Multivariable adjustment linear models were applied to estimate the effect of SUA levels on FEV₁% predicted, FVC% predicted, and FEV₁/FVC stratified by COPD status.

Results: After multivariable adjustment, each 1 mg/dL increase of SUA was significantly associated with a decrease in FEV₁% predicted (-1.63%, 95% confidence interval [CI] -2.37 to -0.90), FVC % predicted (-0.89%, 95% CI -1.55 to -0.24), and FEV₁/FVC (-0.70%, 95% CI -1.10 to -0.30). In the COPD group, each 1 mg/dL increase of SUA was significantly associated with decreases in FEV₁% predicted (-1.87%, 95% CI -2.91 to -0.84), FVC% predicted (-1.35%, 95% CI -2.35 to -0.34), and FEV₁/FVC (-0.63%, 95% CI -1.18 to -0.08). However, no significant association between lung function and SUA was found among people without COPD.

Conclusion: High SUA levels were associated with lower lung function, especially in COPD patients. However, no statistically significant effect of SUA on lung function was found in people without COPD.

Keywords: COPD; lung function; non-COPD; serum uric acid.

MeSH terms

Cross-Sectional Studies
Forced Expiratory Volume
Humans
Lung
Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive* / diagnosis
Uric Acid
Vital Capacity

Substances

Uric Acid

Grants and funding

The present study was supported by The National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant number 2016YFC1304101), the Local Innovative and Research Teams Project of Guangdong Pearl River Talents Program (2017BT01S155), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81970045), Zhongnanshan Medical Foundation of Guangdong Province (ZNSA2020003, ZNSA-2021012, and ZNSA-2020013) Basic and Applied Basic Research Fund of Guangdong Province (2020A 1515110915) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (82000044).