Gout Resource Center

Gout is a very common form of inflammatory arthritis, affecting ~9.2 million adults (3.9%) in the U.S. Although the etiology of gout is well understood and effective, inexpensive medications exist to treat gout, gaps in quality of care persist. Below, explore selected content from The Rheumatologist’s collection of research reviews, case reports and clinical articles on advances in the diagnosis and management of gout. New features are added often, so check back frequently.

With more than 40 research abstracts on gout accepted for presentation at ACR Convergence 2021, filtering the noise to get to the key thoughts may be challenging. Lisa Stamp, MBChB, PhD, can help. A rheumatologist, professor of medicine and the associate dean of research at the University of Otago in Christchurch, New Zealand, she has extensively researched the pathophysiology and management of gout. She brings us the highlights in “Gout Research at a Glance: ‘My picks for the top research in gout presented at ACR Convergence 2021.’“

FEATURED ARTICLE: Gout Management Recommendations from the ACR’s 2020 Guideline

Reducing Immunogenicity of Pegloticase ... Click here to view abstract video

Reducing Immunogenicity of Pegloticase ... Click here to view visual abstract summary

High Opioid Prescription Rates Seen in Emergency Department-Treated Gout

Acute gout can be very painful, causing patients to seek treatment in the emergency department. A retrospective study of pain interventions for gout in Rhode Island found that nearly 30% of patients received prescriptions for opioid medications over 30 months. Of these prescriptions, over 80% were for patients who had never been exposed to opioids… [Read More]

Bringing Consistency to Gout Terms & Concepts

The umbrella term crystalline disease covers arthritic conditions caused by deposition of crystals and associated inflammatory response, including erythema, edema and intense pain. The two most common crystal-induced arthropathies are gout, an arthritis secondary to inflammation caused by the presence of monosodium urate (MSU) crystals formed through high levels of serum urate, and calcium pyrophosphate… [Read More]

The ACR Releases a New Gout Guideline

In May, the ACR released a new treatment guideline for the management of gout for simultaneous publication in Arthritis & Rheumatology and Arthritis Care & Research.1 Based on evidence from more than 130 published studies, the guideline makes a total of 42 recommendations—of which 16 are strong: It has 27 recommendations for urate-lowering therapy (ULT)… [Read More]

The Latest Advances in Sjögren’s, Scleroderma, RA, Gout & More

ATLANTA—At the ACR/ARP 2019 Annual Meeting, several widely renowned experts across an array of specialty subjects provided a comprehensive and compelling review of advances in the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of a number of rheumatologic conditions. Sjögren’s Syndrome Frederick Vivino, MD, FACR, chief of rheumatology at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and professor of clinical medicine… [Read More]

New Study Identifies How Big a Role Diet Plays in Hyperuricemia

Living like a king has its price. And while kings and queens are primarily something of yesteryear, the vast majority of those living in reasonably wealthy nations can now live like kings. Now, back to that price. Gout, once known as the disease of kings, has been around at least since the time of the… [Read More]

Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitors May Decrease Gout Risk in Some Patients

Recent research assessed the risk of gout in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus prescribed sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors compared with those prescribed a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist. The study found patients on the SGLT2 inhibitor had a lower rate of gout, suggesting SGLT2 inhibitors may actually reduce the risk of gout among this patient population…... [Read More]

Pegloticase & Methotrexate Combination Therapy May Benefit Patients with Uncontrolled Gout

Patients with uncontrolled gout may benefit from a combination of pegloticase and methotrexate therapy, according to a small, retrospective study…... [Read More]

Potential Link Between OA & Gout

Monosodium urate (MSU) crystal formation, deposition and gout flares frequently affect joints that have been damaged or are affected by osteoarthritis. These researchers examined the effects of human cartilage homogenates on MSU crystallization and MSU crystal-induced inflammation…... [Read More]

Case Report: A Patient with Gout Develops Granulomatous Hepatitis

A CT of the abdomen demonstrated numerous hypodense lesions present in both lobes of the liver, with the largest lesion measuring 2.0 x 3.1 cm.

Case Presentation A 45-year-old man with crystal-proven gout, poorly controlled diabetes and chronic kidney disease was lost to follow-up for six years and presented back to the VA clinic in the midst of a gout flare. He stated he had continued taking 100 mg of allopurinol daily, but his serum urate level was 13.8 mg/dL…. [Read More]

Insight into Achieving & Maintaining Target Serum Urate Levels in Gout Patients

A recent study advances the understanding of factors associated with a target serum urate level of 6 mg/dL or less. Researchers found such factors as having a rheumatologist as the main provider of gout care contributed to achieving and maintaining this outcome. However, the presence of co-morbidities lowered a patient’s chances for achieving the target serum urate level, even with allopurinol use…... [Read More]