PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Abhishek Abhishek
AU  - Edward Roddy
AU  - Michael Doherty
TI  - Gout – a guide for the general and acute physicians
AID  - 10.7861/clinmedicine.17-1-54
DP  - 2017 Feb 01
TA  - Clinical Medicine
PG  - 54--59
VI  - 17
IP  - 1
4099  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/17/1/54.short
4100  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/17/1/54.full
SO  - Clin Med2017 Feb 01; 17
AB  - Gout is the most prevalent inflammatory arthritis and affects 2.5% of the general population in the UK. It is also the only arthritis that has the potential to be cured with safe, inexpensive and well tolerated urate-lowering treatments, which reduce serum uric acid by either inhibiting xanthine oxidase – eg allopurinol, febuxostat – or by increasing the renal excretion of uric acid. Of these, xanthine oxidase inhibitors are used first line and are effective in ‘curing’ gout in the vast majority of patients. Gout can be diagnosed on clinical grounds in those with typical podagra. However, in those with involvement of other joints, joint aspiration is recommended to demonstrate monosodium urate crystals and exclude other causes of acute arthritis, such as septic arthritis. However, a clinical diagnosis of gout can be made if joint aspiration is not feasible. This review summarises the current understanding of the pathophysiology, clinical presentation, investigations and treatment of gout.