ASSOCIATION BETWEEN HYPERURICEMIA, SERUM IRON LEVEL AND POSSIBILITY OF GOUT AMONG SAUDI PATIENTS: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

The present study has been undertaken to evaluate the association between serum uric acid levels as a marker of iron overload in Saudi people. A retrospective cohort study was carried out at King Fahad Medical City in the Riyadh-central region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for four months from 1^st November 2018 to the end of February 2019 on the random sample of 117 medical files for Saudi patient of both genders. All the obtained data were analyzed by the SPSS program by considering various variables like serum uric acid, transferrin, hemoglobin, ferritin level, etc., in between hyperuricemic non-hyperuricemic patients. Serum uric acid, transferrin, ferritin, and hemoglobin levels were significantly (p>0.05) high i.e. 564.1 ± 127.7 vs. 417.6 ± 38.3 μmol/l; 3 ± 1 vs. 2.1 ± 0.8 g/dl; 658.9 ± 896 vs. 528.6 ± 920 ng/ml; 9.9 ± 2.2 vs. 9.7 ± 1.8 g/dl in hyperuricemic and non-hyperuricemic patients respectively. Pearson correlation between serum uric acid and hemoglobin, ferritin level, transferrin level indicate positive correlation (r = 0.21), (r = 0.46) and (r = 0.23) respectively. The findings of this study demonstrate a positive correlation between serum uric acid and iron markers (serum ferritin, transferrin, and hemoglobin) in Saudi patients. Undiagnosed hemochromatosis or iron overload should be considered as a possibility when there are elevated uric acid levels even in the absence of related symptoms.