Effect of serum uric acid on the risk of aortic aneurysm and dissection: A mendelian randomization analysis

Abstract

Aortic aneurysm and dissection (AAD) are severe vascular diseases with high mortality rates. However, the causal relationship between serum uric acid levels and the occurrence of AAD remains a subject of controversy. To address this issue, we conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to investigate whether there is a causal association between these factors. We obtained single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) data related to serum uric acid levels from the FinnGen study and data on AAD from the UK Biobank. Various two-sample MR methods, including inverse variance weighted (IVW) analysis, MR-Egger regression analysis, weighted median analysis, and contamination mixture method, were employed to assess the causal relationship between serum uric acid and the risk of AAD. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to evaluate the stability and reliability of the results. The findings revealed a positive association between serum uric acid levels and the risk of aortic aneurysm (AA) (odds ratio [OR] = 1.200, 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 1.020–1.400, P = 0.0239). However, no significant correlation was observed between serum uric acid levels and the occurrence of aortic dissection (AD) (OR = 0.893, 95 % CI = 0.602–1.326, P = 0.576). Our study, which employed MR analysis, identified a positive association between serum uric acid levels and the risk of AA. However, we did not observe a significant correlation with AD.