Higher serum uric acid levels and advanced age are associated with an increased prevalence of colorectal polyps

The present study retrospectively analyzed the laboratory data of patients who had undergone a colonoscopy between April 2011 and March 2014, with the aim of assessing whether these variables could be used to predict the presence of colorectal polyps (CP). A total of 1,471 patients were enrolled (731 men, 68.5±10.8 years; 740 women, 66.7±10.8 years). One-way analysis of variance was performed to analyze the association between the presence of CP and a range of laboratory variables. Logistic regression analysis was performed to establish a regression equation to predict the presence of CP. Receiver-operator characteristics analysis was applied to investigate the performance of the regression equation. Patients with CP were older than those without CP (P<0.0001). Serum uric acid (UA) levels were higher in patients with CP, compared to those without CP (P=0.0007). To investigate the possibility that older age and higher UA levels could predict the presence of CP, logistic regression analysis was performed (P=0.0008). The regression equation was as follows: ln( p /1 - p ) = 2.79015 - 0.01836 × age - 0.28542 × UA (mg/dl), where p indicates the presence of CP. Receiver-operator characteristic analysis showed the area under the curve to be 0.62092 and the threshold value of P was 0.4370. Sensitivity and specificity of the threshold value were 77.6 and 44.2%, respectively. Advanced age and higher serum UA levels were associated with the presence of CP. In conclusion, logistic regression analysis obtained a regression equation that predicted the presence of CP with a higher sensitivity, but poorer specificity, compared to fecal occult blood testing.