AUTHOR=Xu Liu-Qing , Hu Wei , Guo Qi-Fu , Xu Guo-Rong , Wang Ning , Zhang Qi-Jie 

TITLE=Serum Uric Acid Levels Predict Mortality Risk in Male Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Patients

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2021.602663

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2021.602663

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Objective:</bold> To explore the associations between serum uric acid levels with survival in male and female ALS patients.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> A longitudinal cohort study was carried out including 313 sporadic and 16 familial ALS patients with repeated serum uric acid measurements. Multivariate Cox regression models were used to evaluate the survival-related factors.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> There were 207 male and 122 female, and the mean age of onset was 55.7 ± 11.2 years old. The male patients had significantly higher baseline uric acid levels than that in female patients (342.4 ± 91.4 vs. 279.3 ± 71.4 μmol/L; <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.0001). The uric acid levels were inversely associated with the decline rate of ALSFRS-R per month (ΔALSFRS-R). After multivariate Cox regression analysis, a survival advantage was found in male, but not female, with higher serum uric acid levels. In males, a shorter diagnostic delay (≤10 m), lower BMI at baseline (≤18.70 kg/m<sup>2</sup>), faster disease progression (ΔALSFRS-R &gt; 0.63), and lower baseline uric acid levels (≤292 μmol/L, HR: 1.936; 95% CI: 1.334–2.810) were associated with a shorter survival. During follow-up, the serum uric acid levels were not significantly altered over time.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> There is an inverse correlation between baseline serum uric acid levels and risk of death, prominently in male ALS patients.</p>