Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0018099 (gout)
 5,192 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Uric acid, an antioxidant, is reduced in multiple sclerosis (MS). Patients with gout have a reduced incidence of MS. Optic neuritis (ON), often the first manifestation of MS, is not known to be associated with reduced uric acid. Patients with recent onset of ON were investigated to determine whether uric acid levels were reduced at presentation. Twenty-one patients with ON were included, 17 females and 4 males. The mean (SD) serum uric acid in the ON female group was 184.4 ( +/-55.1) micromol/L (range, 116-309 micromol/L), whilst in the control group it was 235.2 (+/- 50.2) micromol/L (range, 172-381 micromol/L). The difference was statistically significant (chi2 = 8.93, P = 0.003). In the small male cohort, mean (SD) serum uric acid was 305 (+/- 52.1) micromol/L, whilst in the control group it was 328 (+/- 80.4) micromol/L. These differences were not statistically significant. Reduced antioxidant reserve is possibly an early pathogenic mechanism in inflammatory demyelination, and raises the possibility that low uric acid levels could be an indicator of disease activity. Since optic neuropathies of other causes were not investigated, future research needs to determine whether low uric acid represents a unique feature of optic neuritis or is seen in other optic neuropathies.
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PMID:Serum uric acid levels in optic neuritis. 1522 91

Altered serum uric acid concentrations, both above and below normal levels, have been linked to a number of disease states. An abnormally high uric acid level has been correlated with gout, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and renal disease, whereas a reduced uric acid concentration has been linked to multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and optic neuritis. Historically, uric acid has been considered a marker of these disease states. Recent studies, however, have provided evidence that uric acid may actually play a role in the development or progression of such diseases. As a result, the manipulation of uric acid concentrations is now either included in, or being investigated for, the treatment of a variety of disease states.
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PMID:Altered uric acid levels and disease states. 1789 Apr 45