Abstract: Objective To investigate the risk of hyperuricemia on cardiovascular disease in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).Methods Patients diagnosed of NAFLD in both outpatient and inpatient in our hospital from 2009 to 2015 were enrolled, who were ≥ 18-year old and without the other liver diseases or excessive drinking history. Framingham scoring system and carotid artery ultrasonography were applied for assessing cardiovascular risk.Results A total of 678 NAFLD patients were enrolled, including 410 patients with normal uric acid and 268 patients with hyperuricemia (HUA).Among the 678 NAFLD patients, 233 received carotid artery ultrasonography. Compared to normal uric acid group, HUA group showed higher levels of waist-hip ratio, body mass index (BMI), diastolic blood pressure, triglyceride (TG), fasting plasma glucose (FBG), homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and prevalence rate of metabolic syndrome, but lower level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (P<0.05), respectively. Male and female patients were divided into four groups by uric acid level, respectively. Framingham risk showed significantly positive correlation to uric acid level (P=0.012), while no significant differences were observed in carotid intima media thickness (CIMT), incidence of thickening carotid artery and carotid artery plaque among the 4 groups with different uric acid levels (P=0.691, 0.384 and 0.936, respectively). Further analysis revealed that uric acid was not associated with Framingham risk and CIMT.Conclusion Metabolic disorder was more noticeable in NAFLD patients with HUA than that in NAFLD patients with normal uric acid. Ten-year cardiovascular risk exerts a positive correlation with uric acid level.

Key words: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, Hyperuricemia, Metabolic syndrome, Cardiovascular disease