Uric Acid: A Risk Factor for Coronary Heart Disease?

SUMMARY The association between serum uric acid and the prevalence of ECG abnormalities was analyzed for 24,997 employed men and women, white and black, age 18-64 years, from the Chicago Heart Association (CHA) Detection Project in Industry. In addition, the relationships between uric acid and 5-year mortality from all causes, from cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and from coronary heart disease (CHD) were analyzed for 7804 white men and women age 45-64 years from this study and 967 white men age 44-63 years from the Chicago People's Gas Company Study. For men, the associations between uric acid and the prevalence of ECG abnormalities and with mortality appear to be secondary to associations between uric acid and other risk factors. For women, however, the associations could not be explained by other risk factors. A POSSIBLE ASSOCIATION of serum uric acid with risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) has been noted in several studies. ' 7 Other reports have either not confirmed these findings8-10 or noted that the association disappears when controlling for relative weight or use of diuretics."'8 The importance of determining if uric acid is an in