In this 3-part series of informational podcasts, I discuss how the current understanding of gout is changing and how this affects the management of the disease… Read More
They may be supported by guidelines and commonly used in practice, but joint injections with glucocorticoids for acute gout are not backed by any randomized controlled clinical trials, according to a new Cochrane report. However, the report backs away from saying they should not be used. More »
Here: how omega-3 fatty acids may help reduce the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) in postcardiac surgery patients; how incident HF can help predict adverse outcomes in patients with AF; and why an old gout drug may help reduce the risk of AF in patients with heart failure. More »
Despite hopes that rilonacept might provide a better alternative to NSAIDs or colchicines for gout pain, it does not provide significant relief either on its own or as an add-on therapy to indomethacin. More »
Does this evidence from recent research overturn some generally accepted principles about gout, rheumatoid arthritis, reactive arthritis, and osteoarthritis? Most of these studies were undertaken in order to test ideas that were described as common wisdom in rheumatology. More »
Dual-energy CT scans of ligaments and bones in patients with tophaceous gout showed patterns of monosodium urate crystal deposition suggestive of a role for biomechanical strain. The Achilles tendon was the most commonly involved site. More »
Used for gout for centuries, colchicine is known to be peculiarly toxic at high doses. A new understanding of its potential for poisoning, deliberate or otherwise, merits attention to its often-underestimated risks. More »
In the third podcast in this 3-part series, Dr Lieberman describes the options for treatment of an acute flare and for long-term urate-lowering therapy. The first step is lifestyle modification, and he discusses the challenges of motivating patients to institute and adhere to dietary changes.
The gold standard for diagnosis is joint aspiration and synovial fluid analysis; however, compensated polarized light microscopy is not available in most primary care practices. In part 2 of his 3-part podcast, Dr Lieberman discusses the diagnosis of gout in real-world practice.
Gout is a primary care disease. About 70% of patients with gout are treated exclusively in the primary care setting. And because the prevalence of gout is increasing, particularly in older patients, you are increasingly likely to encounter this disease in your practice.
Objective. Acute gout is associated with a decrease in serum uric acid (SUA) that is considered to be in response to acute inflammation but it may be a feature of gout itself. We, therefore, aimed to investigate the effect of the acute systemic inflammatory response (SIR) on SUA concentrations in subjects without gout.
Methods. SUA and urinary excretion of uric acid (UA) (expressed as fractional excretion of UA; FEua%) were measured in 30 patients before and 48 h after
Objective. To evaluate the efficacy and safety of IL-1 inhibitor rilonacept (IL-1 Trap) for gout flare (GF) prevention during initiation of uric acid-lowering therapy (ULT) with allopurinol in a multiregional phase 3 clinical trial.
Methods. Hyperuricaemic adults (n = 248) from South Africa, Germany and Asia with gout and two or more GFs within the past year were initiated on allopurinol and randomized 1:1:1 to once-weekly s.c. treatment with placebo (PBO), rilonacept 80 mg (
Transglutaminase 2 (TG2) is a post-translational protein-modifying enzyme that catalyzes the transamidation reaction, producing crosslinked or polyaminated proteins. Increased TG2 expression and activity have been reported in various inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation-associated pulmonary fibrosis, and autoimmune encephalitis. In particular, TG2 from epithelial cells is important during the initial inflammatory response in the lung. In this study, we evaluated the role of
Excessively acidic urine is the dominant factor in uric acid stone formation. Recent evidence implicating insulin resistance has revived interest in its causation. We reviewed data on uric acid stone formers attending a general stones clinic to find out whether this supports and adds to current concepts.
Methods
A retrospective database study of 1504 stone formers investigated at the Southampton renal stones clinic from 1990 to March 2007. Uric acid stone form
Lower urinary citrate excretion is a risk factor for nephrolithiasis and associated with metabolic acidosis and higher prevalence of hypertension and insulin resistance. This study sought to quantify the independent predictors of urinary citrate excretion in population-based cohorts.
Design, setting, participants, & measurements
A cross-sectional study of 2561 individuals from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study and Nurses’
What you should coverImportant features to explore in the history include: Onset of painmight be acute or insidious. Duration of painlonger duration indicates a stone in the kidney or could indicate another cause. Locationpredominantly loin, groin, or both (loin to groin pain). Severity of painclassically worst pain ever, patients are unable to get comfortable (unlike peritonism), but this is not always the case. Urinary symptomsdistal ureteric stones often cause frequency, dysu
Increases in multimorbidity and obesity have been noted in HIV-infected populations in the current treatment era. Patterns of multimorbid disease clustering and the impact of obesity on multimorbidity are understudied in this population.|We examined obesity and multimorbidity patterns among 1844 HIV-infected patients in the UAB 1917 Clinic. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the underlying factor structure responsible for clustering. Patterns among the resulting morbidity factors by body mass index (BMI) category were explored. Multivariable logistic regression models were fit to identify predictors of multimorbidity cluster patterns.|The prevalence of multimorbidity was 65% (1205/1844). Prevalence increased with progressive BMI categories from underweight (64%) to obese (79%). Three multimorbidity clusters were identified: "metabolic," including hypertension, gout, diabetes mellitus, and chronic kidney disease (range, 0.41-0.84; P < 0.001); "Behavioral," including mood
Intraosseous ganglion (IOG) is the most frequently occurring bone lesion within the carpus and is often an incidental finding on radiographs obtained for other reasons. Two types of IOG have been described: an "idiopathic" form (or type I), the pathogenesis of which has not been completely clarified, and a "penetrating" form (or type II), caused by the intrusion of juxtacortical material (often a ganglion cyst of the dorsal soft tissue) into the cancellous bone compartment. The differential diagnosis for IOG is wide-ranging and complex, including lesions of posttraumatic (posttraumatic cystlike defects), degenerative (subchondral degenerative cysts), inflammatory [cystic rheumatoid arthritis, chronic tophaceous gout (CTG)], neoplastic (benign primary bone tumours and synovial proliferative lesions), ischaemic (Kienbck's disease or avascular osteonecrosis of the lunate) and metabolic (amyloidosis) origin. Multimodality imaging of IOGs is a useful diagnostic tool that provides
Study Type--Prognosis (cohort) Level of Evidence 2b. What's known on the subject? and What does the study add? Although early studies failed to detect an association between urinary calculi (UC) and subsequent cardiovascular risk, there is growing evidence among more recent research supporting this association with some studies more specifically suggesting that stroke is a major concern for UC sufferers. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, UC patients were more likely to have experienced a stroke then those without UC during the five-year follow-up period (hazard ratio = 1.43, 95% Cl = 1.35-1.50, P < 0.001).| To examine in a population-based study the relationship between a history of nephrolithiasis and/or ureterolithiasis and the subsequent risk of stroke, as previous studies have shown that stone disease is associated with several cardiovascular risk factors. However, none of the studies that have investigated the relationship between urinary calculi (UC) and
This report describes a very rare case of synovial chondromatosis with deposition of calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate (CPPD) crystals (pseudogout) in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) of a 46-year-old male patient. Synovial chondromatosis is a non-neoplastic disease characterized by metaplasia of the connective tissue leading to chondrogenesis in the synovial membrane. Pseudogout is an inflammatory disease of the joints caused by the deposition of CPPD, producing similar symptoms to those observed in gout but not hyperuricaemia. Both diseases commonly affect the knee, hip and elbow joints, but rarely affect the TMJ.
AE Livingston Edward H EH eng Patient Education Handout United States JAMA 7501160 0098-7484 0 Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal 0 Gout Suppressants 69-93-2 Uric Acid AIM IM
Primary Care Can't Thrive Without Nurse Practitioners Courtney H. Lyder, ND, May 17, 2013 With a projected shortfall of primary-care physicians, it's time for alternate solutions to patient care. Nurse practitioners are one logical remedy.
