Relationship between serum uric acid/albumin ratio and circadian rhythm of blood pressure in hypertensive patients

The presence of a non-dipping blood pressure (BP) pattern has a close relationship with a high risk of adverse cardiovascular diseases and a worse long-term prognosis. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between non-dipper circadian pattern and serum uric acid/albumin ratio (UAR) in hypertensive patients. The research was conducted with 340 consecutive patients who were applied to Yozgat City Hospital cardiology outpatient clinic due to hypertension between June 2022 and June 2023 and included in the sample. The patients were divided into two different groups considering the circadian blood pressure (BP) pattern taken from dipper and non-dipper groups subsequent to 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM). Non-dipper group is defined as a nocturnal BP decrease of less than 10%. UAR level was calculated from the laboratory parameters of the patients. SPSS 23.0 program was used to evaluate the data. UAR level observed in the non-dipper group was found to be significantly higher than those of the dipper group. As for the analysis based on the multivariate logistic regression, high UAR was found as independently associated with the presence of the non-dipping pattern. In Spearman correlation analysis, we determined that UAR had a weak but significant correlation with nighttime systolic BP(r=0.185, p=0.001). About curve analysis of the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC), UAR values above 1.30 predicted non-dipper pattern with a sensitivity of 66.5% and specificity of 65.9% (AUC: 0.738; 95%CI: 0.688-0.790; p < 0.001). UAR may be a simple and easily calculable biomarker for judging non-dipper circadian BP pattern. Thus, hypertensive patients at high risk for adverse atherosclerotic events in the future can be identified and observed closely, and more intensive treatment options can be applied to these patients