ácido úrico y síndrome metabólico en una población masculina de pilotos de líneas aéreas

fundamentals: uric acid and metabolic syndrome are strongly related to cardiovascular disease. objective: to assess the prevalence of metabolic syndrome as well as the levels of uric acid among aircrew members and to determine the relationship between the levels of uric acid and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. methods: we studied a population of 790 male airline pilots. we used the definition of metabolic syndrome of the national cholesterol education program adult treatment panel iii, but modified by replacing waist circumference for the measurement of body mass index. results: 25.4% of the pilots presented elevated level of uric acid. 19.9% of pilots presented metabolic syndrome. the risk to present metabolic syndrome in pilots with uric acid elevated in relation to those pilots with normal uric acid was 2.6 higher with a confidence interval of 95% between 2 and 3,4 with a significance of p<0.001. there is a positive linear association between the increased concentration of uric acid and the number of metabolic syndrome diagnostic criteria (p<0,001). conclusions: our results suggest that hyperuricemia can be a complication related to the metabolic syndrome. the abdominal obesity may condition an increased concentration of serum uric acid. it is necessary to increase the number of studies on aircrew members in relation to the above mentioned metabolic factors in order to increase the flight safety.