Discussion
atherosclerosis, hyperuricemia
CAROTID ATHEROSCLEROSIS, ASYMPTOMATIC HYPERURICEMIA, HYPERURICEMIA, ASYMPTOMATIC HYPERURICEMIA, ATHEROSCLEROSIS, ASCVD
In the multicenter, prospective, randomized, controlled PRIZE study, mean and maximum CCA-IMT were analyzed in patients with asymptomatic hyperuricemia in a blinded manner at a central core laboratory at baseline and 24 months. In the present post-hoc analysis, higher BMI, a history of ASCVD, and older age were identified as factors related to IMT progression, confirming the importance of conventional risk markers in this specific population. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate factors associated with the development of carotid atherosclerosis in asymptomatic hyperuricemic patients.Carotid IMT, the thickness of the intimal and medial layer of the carotid artery wall, can be non-invasively measured by ultrasound imaging and has been used as a surrogate marker of early-stage atherosclerosis in daily practice and clinical studiesA meta-analysis of 15 cross-sectional studies including 11,382 participants showed that SUA levels correlated positively with carotid IMTNevertheless, because patients with hyperuricemia are at a high risk of cardiovascular eventsThe present analysis has several limitations. The PRIZE study was a prospective, randomized, controlled study, but the present analysis was conducted in a post-hoc fashion. Because most of participants in this study were Japanese, caution is warranted to interpret the results given the possible racial difference in the progression of carotid IMT