[Uric acid and arterial hypertension. I. Relation between serum uric acid level and its renal excretion in primary arterial hypertension].

In forty patients with mild to moderate essential hypertension and in twenty healthy subjects serum uric acid was measured and parameters of renal excretion of urate were evaluated. Serum uric acid concentration and prevalence of hyperuricemia were significantly higher in hypertensive patients. Patients with essential hypertension and concomitant hyperuricemia showed significantly decreased clearance and fractional excretion of uric acid in comparison with normotensive subjects. Adverse correlation between serum uric acid and clearance as well as fractional excretion of urate found in hypertensive patients indicates that high prevalence of hyperuricemia in essential hypertension is caused by impaired renal excretion of uric acid.