Uric acid as a risk factor for progression of non-diabetic chronic kidney disease? The Mild to Moderate Kidney Disease (MMKD) Study

The kidney is one of the organs most prominently affected by aging. This can be seen by a loss of renal mass which is caused by a decrease in the number of nephrons resulting in hyperfiltration, hypertrophy and elevations in glomerular pressure. The factors influencing aging of the kidney are not fully elucidated. Epidemiological, experimental and interventional studies resulted in inconsistent results and have not firmly established whether uric acid levels affect progression of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). Therefore, we analyzed whether uric acid levels predict the progression of CKD in the Mild to Moderate Kidney Disease Study comprising at baseline 227 Caucasian patients aged 18–65 years with primary non-diabetic CKD of various degrees of renal impairment. Of them, 177 completed a prospective follow-up of 7 years. Primary endpoint was progression of CKD defined as doubling of baseline serum creatinine and/or terminal renal failure. Patients who reached a progression endpoint (n = 65) were significantly older, had higher baseline serum creatinine and protein excretion rates as well as lower Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR). Uric acid levels were only higher in patients with progression of disease when patients with uric acid-lowering drugs were excluded from the analysis. Cox regression analysis revealed that increasing uric acid levels predict disease progression only when the analysis was not adjusted for baseline kidney function parameters. As soon as we adjusted the analysis for GFR and proteinuria this association completely vanished. In summary, our prospective 7 year follow-up study in patients with non-diabetic primary CKD did not support uric acid as an independent predictor for CKD progression.