The importance of including uric acid in the definition of metabolic syndrome when assessing the mortality risk

Introduction Serum uric acid (SUA) has been depicted as a contributory causal factor in metabolic syndrome (MS), which in turn, portends unfavourable prognosis. Aim We assessed the prognostic role of SUA in patients with and without MS. Methods We used data from the multicentre Uric Acid Right for Heart Health study and considered cardiovascular mortality (CVM) as death due to fatal myocardial infarction, stroke, sudden cardiac death, or heart failure. Results A total of 9589 subjects (median age 58.5 years, 45% males) were included in the analysis, and 5100 (53%) patients had a final diagnosis of MS. After a median follow-up of 142 months, we observed 558 events. Using a previously validated cardiovascular SUA cut-off to predict CVM (> 5.1 mg/dL in women and 5.6 mg/dL in men), elevated SUA levels were significantly associated to a worse outcome in patients with and without MS (all p