Higher Serum Uric Acid May Contribute to Cerebral Infarction in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: a Meta-Analysis

Higher levels of serum uric acid tend to increase the diabetes-related complications. We performed a meta-analysis to investigate whether the higher serum uric acid levels were associated with cerebral infarction in type 2 diabetes patients. We searched for relevant studies in the PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, China BioMedicine, and VIP database until August 2015. All observational studies comparing serum uric acid levels in type 2 diabetic patients with and without cerebral infarction were included. We calculated the ratio of means (RoM) of serum uric acid by mean (cerebral infarction)/mean (diabetic control) from the individual studies and then pooled RoM and its 95 % confidence intervals (CI). A total of 23 eligible studies were identified. Pooled estimates indicated that type 2 diabetes patients with cerebral infarction were associated with 29 % (RoM 1.29; 95 % CI 1.26-1.31) higher serum uric acid levels than those without cerebral infarction in a random effect model. Subgroup analyses based on gender indicated that RoM was 1.23 (95 % CI 1.09-1.38) for men and 1.12 (95 % CI 0.98-1.27) for women. This meta-analysis suggests that higher serum uric acid levels may contribute to cerebral infarction in patients with type 2 diabetes.