Urine Albumin/Creatinine Ratio and Serum Uric Acid as Predictors of Severity in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

As a global healthcare issue, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is mainly associated with smoking. Nonetheless, environmental and occupational issues are also linked to its development. The present study aimed to assess the urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) and serum uric acid (SUA) levels as predictors of disease severity in COPD patients.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 67 patients diagnosed with COPD using the Global Initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease diagnostic criteria. The participants were patients who were either referred to the subspecialty clinic of the pulmonology and spirometry unit of Hamadan Shahid Beheshti Hospital or were hospitalized in the pulmonology ward. Blood and urine samples were taken from the COPD patients, and the serum uric acid, urine albumin, and urine creatinine levels were assessed and recorded in a checklist. The data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 23) at a significance level of 0.05.

In terms of gender, 5.7% of the participants were male and 34.3% were female. The mean age of patients was 61.77 years. The stages of disease severity in the patients were as follows: 20.89%, 22.38%, 5.73%, and 2.98% of cases had very severe, severe, moderate, and mild COPD, respectively. The regression analysis results demonstrated that SUA levels could significantly predict the FEV1 in COPD patients; nonetheless, urine ACR could not predict the FEV1 scores.

As evidenced by the result of the present study, the FEV1 in COPD patients and disease severity could be predicted by the SUA levels. Therefore, it is recommended to consider monitoring and assessing non-pulmonary factors, especially SUA levels, in the treatment of COPD patients.