RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Gout – a guide for the general and acute physicians
JF Clinical Medicine
JO Clin Med
FD Royal College of Physicians
SP 54
OP 59
DO 10.7861/clinmedicine.17-1-54
VO 17
IS 1
A1 Abhishek Abhishek
A1 Edward Roddy
A1 Michael Doherty
YR 2017
UL http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/17/1/54.abstract
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.