Elevated serum uric acid (sUA) is associated with increasing risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). However, existing research is limited by potential confounders. Herein, our study aims to probe the association between sUA levels and the morphological characteristics of coronary plaque by a propensity score matching (PSM) analysis.All 420 patients with CHD who had undergone optical coherence tomography of culprit lesions were included. Eligible patients were assigned into 2 groups according to sUA level: high-sUA group (sUA ≥ 6.0 mg/dL) and low-sUA group (sUA < 6.0 mg/dL). PSM was applied to control the balance of baseline characteristics.After PSM, a total of 112 patients were included in our study (56 in each group). The high-sUA group showed a higher prevalence of TCFA (35.7% versus 16.1%, P = 0.03) and macrophage infiltration (33.9% versus 14.3%, P = 0.026) compared with the low-sUA group. Plaques in the high-sUA group had a wider maximum lipid arc (166.51° (115.77°, 224.14°) versus 142.29° (93.95°, 169.06°), P = 0.048), longer calcification length (6.77 (3.90, 20.55) mm versus 4.20 (1.95, 7.45) mm, P = 0.040), and thinner minimum fibrous cap thickness (43.81 (28.17, 62.26) μm versus 92.57 (46.25, 135.37) μm, P = 0.003). Correlation analysis indicated that the sUA value was inversely associated with the minimum fibrous cap thickness (r = -0.332, P = 0.015) and positively associated with the maximum lipid arc (r = 0.399, P = 0.003), average lipid arc (r = 0.347, P = 0.011), and calcification length (r = 0.386, P = 0.006).The relationship between high-sUA levels and typical vulnerable features of plaques persisted after balancing the traditional risk factors.
Keywords: Cardiovascular risk factors; Coronary heart disease; Morphological characteristics; Plaque vulnerability; TCFA.