Abstract
Purpose :
Hyperuricemia has been implicated to be a factor of eye diseases. However, no sufficient evidence in single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) variations is provided to associate its relation with particular ocular abnormalities. In this study, we investigated this potential relevance based on Taiwan Biobank (TWB).
Methods :
A total of 65,076 individuals were enrolled in this study using TWB from 2009-2018, with a mean age of 49.96 (SD=10.91). The TWB is a large-scale national biobank that supplies valuable phenotypic and genetic information to biomedical researchers among Taiwanese population. The study was a case-control study in which the case groups were defined as patients with hyperuricemia (defined as 7 mg or more of uric acid per 100 mL of blood in men and 6.5 mg or more in women before menopause) or self-reported gout, and the control group was age- and gender-matched non-hyperuricemic or non-gouty individuals. The study groups were divided into (1) 55,300 cases with no gout and normal uric acid (2) 7,618 cases with hyperuricemia and no gout (3) 790 cases with gout but normal uric acid (4) 1,368 cases with hyperuricemia and gout. The proportion of variation of groups was compared with that in the control group by GWAS to calculate the relative odds ratio and estimate the significance of each eye disease investigated.
Results :
Patients with gout but normal uric acid, compared with those with normal uric acid without gout, had a significantly higher prevalence of eye diseases, including cataract (200/1356 (14.75%) vs 1362/16925 (8.05%)), dry eye (147/1356 (10.84%) vs 1262/16925 (7.46%)), and myodesopsia (212/1356 (15.63%) vs 1722/16925 (10.17%), after been adjusted for age and gender. Among hyperuricemia-related SNP variants analyzed, rs3741414 and rs1178977 were associated in patients with gout but normal uric acid, concomitant with eye diseases.
Conclusions :
The results of this study indicated that gout is a more critical factor in ocular diseases than hyperuricemia, suggesting a potential sub-clinical effect exerted by uric acid or its associated activities in the eye. The two identified SNP variants need further investigation for the underlying mechanism.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.