Hyperuricemia Inversely Correlates with Disease Severity in Taiwanese Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Patients

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 10; p. e0139796
• Main Authors: Huang, Jee-Fu, Yeh, Ming-Lun, Yu, Ming-Lung, Huang, Chung-Feng, Dai, Chia-Yen, Hsieh, Ming-Yen, Hsieh, Meng-Hsuan, Huang, Ching-I, Lin, Zu-Yau, Chen, Shinn-Chern, Hsiao, Pi-Jung, Shin, Shyi-Jang, Chuang, Wan-Long
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 06.10.2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Alcohol use; Analysis; Biopsy; Body Mass Index; Causes of; Cholesterol; Clinical medicine; Complications and side effects; Demographics; Diabetes; Diabetes mellitus; Diagnosis; Female; Females; Fibrosis; Hepatitis; Hospitals; Humans; Hypertension; Hyperuricemia; Hyperuricemia - complications; Hyperuricemia - pathology; Insulin; Internal medicine; Liver - pathology; Liver Cirrhosis - complications; Liver Cirrhosis - pathology; Liver diseases; Male; Males; Medicine; Metabolic disorders; Metabolic syndrome; Metabolism; Middle Aged; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - complications; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - pathology; Obesity; Obesity, Morbid - complications; Obesity, Morbid - pathology; Patients; Regression analysis; Serum albumin; Severity of Illness Index; Taiwan; Uric acid; Taiwan
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0139796

Asians are more susceptible to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) as well as metabolic disorder than other ethnicities. We aimed to assess the interaction between metabolic factors and fibrosis in Taiwanese NASH patients. A total of 130 biopsy-proven Taiwanese NASH patients (94 males, age = 43.0 ± 13.0 years) were consecutively enrolled. Their demographic, metabolic profiles and histopathological manifestations were analyzed. Twenty-four (18.5%) NASH patients were non-obese. Thirty-three (25.4%) patients had significant fibrosis (F2) or more: 22 (16.9%) patients were of F2, whilst 11 (8.5%) patients were of advanced fibrosis (F3-4). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome, diabetes and hypertension were 60.8%, 39.4%, and 61.5%, respectively. There was a significant inverse correlation between hyperuricemia and fibrosis stages, ranging from 48.4% of F0-1, 33.3% of F2, and 9.1% of F3-4, respectively (P = 0.01, linear trend). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that a decreased serum albumin level (OR = 40.0, 95% CI = 4.5-300, P = 0.001) and normal uric acid level (OR = 5.6, 95% CI = 1.5-21.7, P = 0.01) were the significant factors associated with significant fibrosis. Hyperuricemia inversely predicts fibrosis stages. Females might carry a more disease severity than males in Taiwanese NASH patients.