OBJECTIVE

To determine the association of cardiovascular atherosclerotic plaque monosodium urate deposits with the occurrence of major cardiovascular events in gout and hyperuricemia patients.

METHODS

This retrospective cohort study included patients with clinically suspicion of gout, who performed a dual energy computed tomography of the affected limb and thorax between 1 June 2012 and 5 December 2019. Clinical and laboratory parameters were retrieved from patients' charts. Established cardiovascular risk factors were evaluated. Medical history review identified the presence of major adverse cardiac events with a median follow-up time of 33 months (range 0-108 months) after the performed computed tomography scan.

RESULTS

Full data sets were available for 189 patients: 131 (69.3%) gout patients, 40 (21.2%) hyperuricemia patients and 18 (9.5%) controls. Patients with cardiovascular monosodium urate deposits (n = 85/189, 45%) revealed increased serum acute phase reactants, uric acid levels and calcium scores in computed tomography compared with patients without cardiovascular monosodium urate deposits. Major adverse cardiac events were observed in 35 patients (18.5%) with a higher prevalence in those patients revealing cardiovascular monosodium urate deposits (n = 22/85, 25.9%) compared with those without cardiovascular monosodium urate deposits (n = 13/104, 12.5%, OR 2.4, P = 0.018).

CONCLUSION

This is the first study demonstrating the higher hazard of major adverse cardiac events in patients with dual energy computed tomography-verified cardiovascular monosodium urate deposits. The higher prevalence of cardiac events in patients with cardiovascular monosodium urate deposits may facilitate risk stratification of gout patients, as classical cardiovascular risk scores or laboratory markers fail in their proper identification.