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Higher serum uric acid is associated with higher lumbar spine bone mineral density in male health-screening examinees: a cross-sectional study

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Abstract

Bone health has been associated with oxidative stress and antioxidants have received interest to this end. Serum uric acid (SUA), an end product of purine metabolism in humans, has recently shown antioxidant properties regarding bone health, but there are conflicting results. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between SUA levels and lumbar spine bone mineral density (BMD) in clinically apparently healthy males aged 40–60 years. We performed a cross-sectional study of 6588 Korean males who completed a health-screening program from January 2011 to December 2014. Of the study participants, the mean age was 48.2 ± 10.7 years. Multiple regression analyses resulted in a significant positive association with lumbar spine BMD across SUA quintiles in a dose–response manner after adjusting for various confounding factors (p = 0.013); for each 1 mg/dl increase of SUA, BMD rose by 0.0054 g/cm2 (p = 0.004). Stratified analyses revealed that this association between SUA and lumbar spine BMD was consistently observed across all clinically relevant subgroups. The present study demonstrated a positive association in males between SUA and lumbar spine BMD, suggesting that SUA could have a profitable effect on bone metabolism.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge Mi-Yeon Lee for expert help in the statistical analysis and Hye Won Min for editing the format.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, National Police Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Jiwon Hwang

  2. Center for Health Promotion, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Jung Hye Hwang

  3. Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Samsung Main Building B2, 67 Sejong-daero, Jung-gu, Seoul, 04514, Republic of Korea

    Seungho Ryu

  4. Center for Cohort Studies, Total Healthcare Center, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Seungho Ryu

  5. Department of Clinical Research Design and Evaluation, SAIHST, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Seungho Ryu

  6. Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 29 Saemunan-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 03181, Republic of Korea

    Joong Kyong Ahn

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  1. Jiwon Hwang
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Correspondence to Seungho Ryu or Joong Kyong Ahn.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional review board and/or national research committee, and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For this type of study formal consent is not required.

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Hwang, J., Hwang, J.H., Ryu, S. et al. Higher serum uric acid is associated with higher lumbar spine bone mineral density in male health-screening examinees: a cross-sectional study. J Bone Miner Metab 37, 142–151 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-018-0905-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-018-0905-4

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