Serum uric acid level, and association with cognitive impairment and dementia: systematic review and meta-analysis

Khan, A. A., Quinn, T. J. , Hewitt, J., Fan, Y. and Dawson, J. (2016) Serum uric acid level, and association with cognitive impairment and dementia: systematic review and meta-analysis. Age, 38, 16. (doi: 10.1007/s11357-016-9871-8) (PMID:26820749)

Abstract

Serum uric acid (sUA) level may be associated with cognitive impairment/dementia. It is possible this relationship varies with dementia subtype, particularly between vascular dementias (VaD) and Alzheimer’s (AD) or Parkinson’s disease (PDD)-related dementia. We aimed to present a synthesis of all published data on sUA and relationship with dementia/cognition through systematic review and meta-analysis. We included studies that assessed the association between sUA and any measure of cognitive function or a clinical diagnosis of dementia. We pre-defined subgroup analyses for patients with AD, VaD, PDD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and mixed or undifferentiated. We assessed risk of bias/generalizability, and where data allowed, we performed meta-analysis to describe pooled measures of association across studies. From 4811 titles, 46 papers (n = 16,688 participants) met our selection criteria. Compared to controls, sUA was lower in dementia (SDM −0.33 (95%CI)). There were differences in association by dementia type with apparent association for AD (SDM −0.33 (95%CI)) and PDD (SDM −0.67 (95%CI)) but not in cases of mixed dementia (SDM 0.19 (95%CI)) or VaD (SDM −0.05 (95%CI)). There was no correlation between scores on Mini-Mental State Examination and sUA level (summary r 0.08, p = 0.27), except in patients with PDD (r 0.16, p = 0.003). Our conclusions are limited by clinical heterogeneity and risk of bias in studies. Accepting this caveat, the relationship between sUA and dementia/cognitive impairment is not consistent across all dementia groups and in particular may differ in patients with VaD compared to other dementia subtypes.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Dawson, Professor Jesse and Quinn, Professor Terry
• Authors: Khan, A. A., Quinn, T. J., Hewitt, J., Fan, Y., and Dawson, J.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Health
• Journal Name: Age
• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• ISSN: 0161-9152
• ISSN (Online): 1574-4647