Uric acid as an additional risk factor in coronary artery disease in north Indians.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a chronic inflammatory disease, characterized by disturbed cardiac functions due to imbalance between oxygen supply and demand. Atherosclerosis is the hallmark of CAD, occurring by deposition of yellow fibro fatty plaques known as atheroma which contains cholesterol, lipid and lipophages along with uric acid crystals. Elevated uric acid levels have been found to be associated with increased platelet aggregability and its activation thereby increasing the risk of coronary thrombosis. Hence, the present study was planned to explore the role of uric acid in causation of CAD and whether it act as an independent risk factor or in combination with other parameters. Present study included 50 CAD patients and equal number of age and sex matched control healthy volunteers. The study revealed a significant increase of serum uric acid levels in CAD patients as compared to healthy controls (p<0.001). Other studied biochemical profiles include serum Total Cholesterol (T-C), Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (LDL-C) and High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (HDL-C), Very Low Density Cholesterol (VLDL-C) and Triacylglycerols (Tgs). T-C and LDL-C were found to be significantly elevated whereas HDL-C levels were observed to be significantly lower in CAD patients than controls. There were no significant changes in the levels of VLDL-C and serum triglycerides in patients in comparison to normal individuals. It was concluded that elevation in serum urate levels could be one of the possible risk factor responsible for CAD in conjunction with other risk factors.