Chandan Prasad
Texas Woman's University, USA
Title: Management of hyperuricemia in prepubertal children: Is there a role for functional fibers?
Biography
Biography: Chandan Prasad
Abstract
Although uric acid was first identified some two centuries ago, newer pathophysiologic aspects of hyperuricemia continue to emerge. For years, hyperuricemia has been thought to be exclusively associated with Gout, but it has now been associated with a number of metabolic and hemodynamic abnormalities in adults. More recently, we have examined association between hyperuricemia and components of metabolic syndrome (dyslipidemia, obesity, insulin resistance, and elevated blood pressure) in prepubertal obese school children from underserved population of Nuevo Leon, Mexico. To our surprise, we observed that compared to normal weight children, children in the obese group had significantly greater waist circumference, higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure, elevated fasting insulin and insulin resistance (IR), higher triglycerides, serum uric acid (sUA) and lower HDL-cholesterol. Among the obese children, 33% had characteristics of MetS and 57% of these children had sUA between 5.1-7.1 mg/dl. sUA was positively associated with IR and dyslipidemia. We cannot be certain at this time whether hyperuricemia is the cause or effect in the sequelae of the disease process. However, management of hyperuricemia in young children will be problematic since pharmacologic agents used to treat the condition are largely for adults with no experience with children and plethora of side effects. Therefore, I would like to summarize available data exploring the possibility of managing hyperuricemia in children with functional fibers.