Correlations of Serum Uric Acid and Lipid Concentrations in Normal, Gouty, and Atherosclerotic Men

Abstract

Correlations were sought between the serum concentrations of uric acid, cholesterol, and triglyceride, and an index of body size in 360 blood donors and in 60 men with gout The uric acid concentration of 20% of the male blood donrs 6.5 mg/100 ml, and in 14% of the females 5.5 mg/100 ml, with no racial differences. There was no sexual or racial difference in the cholesterol concentration, but the concentration of triglyceride was lower in women, and lower in negroes than in whites. The incidence of hypertriglyceridemia, but not of hypercholesterolemia was found to be increased in the gout patients. The mean body size of the gout patients was larger than that of matched control subjects. The 3 serum components varied independently of one another in the blood donors and in the gout patients. These measurements were also compared in 32 men with a history of myocardial infarction and in 32 men with cerebral thrombosis, under 60 years of age and without diabetes mellitus. Elevated values of all 3 components occurred with increased frequency among the myocardial infarction patients, while the results in the cerebral thrombosis patients were identical with those of the blood donors. This observation indicates that these 2 manifestations of atherosclerosis may have a different metabolic basis.