Photo Credit: Md Saiful Islam Khan

Urate-lowering therapy (ULT) benefited patients with gout and stage 3 chronic kidney disease (CKD) without increasing the risk for progression to severe or end-stage kidney disease, according to findings published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Researchers conducted a cohort study to investigate the association between achieving target serum urate levels (<6 mg/dL) with ULT and the progression of CKD. The study, conducted using data from the IQVIA Medical Research Database, included 14,792 participants (mean age 73.1 years). After 5 years of follow-up, the risk of severe or end-stage kidney disease was 10.32% for those who achieved the target urate level and 12.73% for those who did not. The adjusted 5-year risk difference was −2.41% (95% CI, −4.61 to −0.21), with an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.89 (95% CI, 0.80 to 0.98) for those achieving the target serum urate level. The authors concluded that their findings support the use of ULT to optimize treatment and lower urate levels in patients with gout and impaired kidney function.