Uric acid and heart failure

Abstract

The frequency of heart failure and hyperuricemia is increasing worldwide. Hyperuricemia as a complication of heart failure is known to be an indicator of poor prognosis. However, no consensus exists on whether treating hyperuricemia as a complication of heart failure would alleviate symptoms or improve prognosis in patients with heart failure. There is insufficient evidence regarding whether treatment with uric acid-lowering agents can alleviate symptoms and improve prognosis in patients with heart failure. However, considering the prevention of gout, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease caused by hyperuricemia, if the serum uric acid level does not fall below 8 mg/dL with improvement in lifestyle habits, uric acid-lowering agents can be a treatment option. In an US cohort study comprising approximately 100,000 participants using Medicare data, less aggravation of heart failure was observed in patients who were administered febuxostat compared to allopurinol. Recent evidence further suggests that serum uric acid may reflect not only a biomarker of disease severity but also underlying xanthine oxidase activity and oxidative stress, which may be therapeutically targetable in selected subgroups of heart failure patients. Moreover, differential effects among uric acid-lowering agents raise the possibility that drug-specific properties, rather than uric acid reduction per se, may influence cardiovascular outcomes. In this review, we discuss clinical trials on hyperuricemia with heart failure and its treatment. Further large-scale, high-quality, prospective intervention studies on the efficacy of treating hyperuricemia as a complication of heart failure are required.