Association between urate-lowering therapy initiation and all-cause mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes and asymptomatic hyperuricemia

Aims

To assess the relationships between urate-lowering therapy (ULT) initiation with all-cause mortality in patients with asymptomatic hyperuricemia and Type 2 Diabetes (T2D).

Methods

This nationwide retrospective cohort study involved patients with T2D and asymptomatic hyperuricemia from 19 academic hospitals across China between 2000 and 2021. The primary exposure was ULT initiation, including allopurinol, febuxostat, or benzbromarone. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality. The secondary outcomes were cardiovascular (CV) and non-CV mortality. Propensity score matching was employed to create a 1:2 matched cohort with balanced likelihood of ULT initiation. Associations between ULT initiation with all-cause and CV mortality were assessed in the matched cohort.

Results

Among 42 507 patients, 5028 initiated ULT and 37 479 did not. In the matched cohort, comprising 4871 ULT initiators and 9047 noninitiators, ULT initiation was significantly associated with reduced risk of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.71–0.84), CV mortality (HR 0.86; 95% CI, 0.76–0.97), and non-CV mortality (HR 0.72; 95% CI, 0.64–0.80) over an average 3.0 years of follow-up. Among the ULT initiators, post-treatment SUA levels of 360–420 μmol/L was related to a significantly lower risk for all-cause mortality compared to levels >420 μmol/L (HR 0.74; 95% CI, 0.59–0.94) while levels ≤360 μmol/L did not (HR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.81–1.14), suggesting a U-shaped relationship.

Conclusions

Initiating ULT was associated with a significant reduction in all-cause mortality in patients with T2D and asymptomatic hyperuricemia. Notably, maintaining post-treatment SUA concentrations within 360–420 μmol/L could potentially enhance this reduced mortality.