Reappraisal of Uric acid in Chronic Kidney Disease

Hyperuricemia predicts the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and metabolic complications, but whether it has a causal role has been controversial. This is especially true given two recently conducted randomized controlled trials that failed to show a benefit of lowering uric acid in type 1 diabetes-associated CKD and subjects with stage 3 to 4 CKD. While these studies suggest that use of urate lowering drugs in unselected patients are unlikely to slow the progression of CKD, there are subsets of subjects with CKD where reducing uric acid synthesis may be beneficial. This may be the case in patients with gout, hyperuricemia (especially associated with increased production), and patients with urate crystalluria. Here we discuss the evidence, and propose that future clinical trials targeting these specific subgroups should be performed.