Gout (patient information)

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Gout

Overview

What are the symptoms?

Who is at highest risk?

Diagnosis

When to seek urgent medical care?

Treatment options

Where to find medical care for Gout?

What to expect (Outlook/Prognosis)?

Prevention

Images

Gout On the Web

Ongoing Trials at Clinical Trials.gov

Images of Gout

Videos on Gout

FDA on Gout

CDC on Gout

Gout in the news

Blogs on Gout

Directions to Hospitals Treating Gout

Risk calculators and risk factors for Gout

For the WikiDoc page for this topic, click here

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Jinhui Wu, MD Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Ujjwal Rastogi, MBBS [2]

Overview

Gout is a kind of arthritis caused by disorder of uric acid metabolism. Uric acid is a matabolic substance of purines and dissolves in the blood and passes through the kidneys into urine. When the body produces more uric acid and/or excrete less uric acid than normal, gout happens. Urate crystals can deposit in the joint space. This causes pain and swelling in the affected joints. Symptoms of gout may be sudden and usually start at night. Foods rich in purines, hpertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, overweight and alcohol abuse are common risk factors. The goal of treatment is to relieve pain, reduce the risk of gout complications and prevent future attacks. Usual medications include NSAIDs, colchicine, corticosteroids, xanthine oxidase inhibitors and probenecid. It is very important to maintain a healthy lifestyle to prevent gout attacks.

What are the symptoms of Gout?

The symptoms of gout may be sudden and usually start at night.

  • Sudden onset of a hot, red, swollen joint. The base of the big toe is most common affected, but other joints of the feet, ankles, knees, hands and wrists can also be involved. The joint hurts more when you touch it.
  • Intense joint pain: The pain is likely to be most severe within the first 12 to 24 hours after it begins.
  • Lingering discomfort.

Certain diseases can present with similar symptoms like

Who is at highest risk?

Diagnosis

Your physician will run the following test to diagnose gout, which are as follows

  • Serum uric acid: This blood test results can be misleading because an elevated serum uric acid level does not indicate gout. Some people who have high uric acid levels may never experience gout. And the normal level of serum uric acid in some patients may show signs and symptoms of gout.
  • Complete blood count: The level of CBC may be elevated in patients with gout.
  • Blood chemistry including renal function and liver function: These functions need to be assessed before therapy.
  • Synovial fluid examination: When a patient demonstrate the signs of acute inflammatory arthritis, it is necessary to aspirate synovial fluid of the involved joint to rule out an infectious arthritis. During the procedure, the doctor may use a needle to draw fluid from your affected joint. Based on the discovery of urate crystals in the synovial fluid or soft tissues, the doctors can confirm the diagnosis.
  • Joint x-ray test: The goal of this test is to rule out other diseases that affect the joint. The most common radiographic findings in patients with gout include soft-tissue swelling or an absence of abnormalities.

When to seek urgent medical care?

If you have gout attacks, go to see your doctor as soon as possible. Early treatment may relieve pain and control inflammatory reaction.

Treatment options

Treatment of gout includes medicine. The goal is to relieve pain, reduce the risk of gout complications and prevent future attacks.

Where to find medical care for Gout?

Directions to Hospitals Treating gout

What to expect (Outlook/Prognosis)?

Generally, the prognpsis of gout is good. It depends on:

  • Whether the patient is treated early
  • Whether the patient maitains a healthy lifestyle.

Prevention

  • Eat a low-cholesterol, low-fat diet. Avoid alcohol and foods that are high in purines. Drink lots of water and other fluids,
  • Maintain a desirable weight
  • Control your blood pressure and glucose in normal levels
  • Be careful when taking medications such as hydrochlorothiazide, niacin, aspirin, cyclosporine, pyrazinamide and ethambutol, and some drugs used to treat cancer. Talk about the doses with your doctor. When taking these drugs, drinking lots of water.

Images

The followings are Images courtesy of Charlie Goldberg, M.D., UCSD School of Medicine and VA Medical Center, San Diego, CA

Sources

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/gout.html

References

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