HOUSTON — How does a history of gout or arthritis due to hyperuricemia affect the development of the ocular neurodegenerative condition glaucoma?
The question was raised, according to a report in Graefe’s Archive for Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology , because those conditions have been linked to decreased risk for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease.1
Researchers from the Michael E. DeBakey VAMC and Baylor University College of Medicine, both in Houston, performed a population-based case-control study in VAMCs nationwide for associations between gout or hyperuricemia and the ophthalmological condition.
To do that, the study team used ICD-9 codes to identify a nationwide cohort of patients examined at VA healthcare eye clinics between 2000 and 2015 with a diagnosis of open-angle glaucoma (OAG) or of glaucoma suspect. It identified 1,144,428 OAG or glaucoma suspect cases, and 1,144,428 matched controls.
Results indicate that veterans with a history of gout had a small significant decreased risk of OAG compared to controls (ORadjusted(adj) = 0.985, 95% CI: 0.974-0.996). In addition, researchers note that treated gout was similarly associated with small decreased risk (ORadj = 0.963, 95% CI: 0.950-0.976).
With a small subset of patients (11.9% of cases and 13.2% of controls) having UA labs available, researchers found that veterans with the highest median UA levels (> 7.29 mg/dL) did not have statistically significant differences in relative OAG risk (ORadj = 1.014, 95% CI: 0.991-1.036).
“Prospective research in other cohorts is needed to confirm our findings in veterans suggesting a history of gout is associated with a small decreased relative risk of glaucoma,” the authors wrote.
- Biggerstaff KS, White DL, Frankfort BJ, Richardson P, et. al. Gout and open-angle glaucoma risk in a veteran population. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2021 Nov;259(11):3371-3379. doi: 10.1007/s00417-021-05273-2. Epub 2021 Jul 17. PMID: 34272610.