Impaired lipoprotein metabolism in patients with primary gout--influence of alcohol intake and body weight.

Using logistic regression analysis, we investigated whether or not excessive alcohol intake and increased BMI, both of which are known causes of lipid metabolism abnormality, are associated with increased serum triglyceride, apolipoprotein B concentrations and decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), high-density lipoprotein 2 cholesterol (HDL2-C) levels in patients with gout. Serum triglyceride levels were significantly higher in patients with gout than in normal subjects. In contrast, serum levels of HDL-C and HDL2-C were significantly lower in patients with gout than in normal subjects. These results were further analysed using stepwise logistic regression. This analysis demonstrated that both serum triglyceride levels and alcohol consumption discriminated subjects with gout from controls but BMI, HDL-C and HDL2-C did not, suggesting that increased serum triglyceride levels exist intrinsically in gout, while decreased concentrations of HDL-C and HDL2-C may be attributed to hypertriglyceridaemia.