Crystal arthritis Flashcards
Which diseases come under ‘crystal arthritis’?
- Gout
- Pseudogout
Which crystals precipitate in gout?What kind of birefringence does it have? what is the shape of the crystals?
- Urate crystals
- Negatively birefringence
- Long & needle shaped
Which crystals precipitate in pseudogout?What kind of birefringence does it have?What is the shape of the crystals?
- calcium pyrophosphate crystals
- positively birefringence
- Small rhomboid shaped
What are the characteristics of gout
- Tends to be acute monoarthritis
- Typically occurs in a peripheral joint, particularly the big toe
- When it happens, people are usually feeling well the day before i.e it is sudden
- Max peak of pain tends to peak during 24 hours
What is a common differential of gout?
Septic arthritis (but with this people usually describe a prodrome of feeling systemically unwell)
What is the role of uric acid in gout?
-Uric acid is the final product of purine metabolism
Why can’t humans break down uric acid in the body?
-Humans have inactive uricase gene
Outline the metabolism of purines
Hypoxanthine—> Xanthine (using enzyme Xanthine oxidase)
Xanthine—> Uric acid (using enzyme Xanthine oxidase)
What is the threshold(s) for hyperuricaemia
- In males is >0.42mmol/L
- In females is .0.36mmol/L
- Hyperuricaemia is more common than gout
What are the risk factors for development of gout?
- Hyperuricaemia
- Persistent alcohol consumption
- Diuretic use
- High BMI
- Lipid disorders
- Older age
- Male sex
- Genetics
Outline a high urate diet
- Shellfish(esp oysters)
- Marmite
- Red meat
- Beer(real ale)
- alcohol
- sweetened soft drinks
What can reduce fractional clearance of urate?
- Alcohol
- Donate a kidney/ have CKD
- Use of diuretics
What are the clinical features of gout
- Classic description of severe pain of rapid onset
- First attack always single joint and never axial skeleton
- Great toe MTPJ>50%
- BUT subsequently any joint/any number of joints
Define Gouty Tophi
- aka tophaceous gout
- A deposit of uric acid crystals, in the form of monosodium urate crystals
- in people with longstanding hyperuricaemia
- pathognomic for the disease
Where can Gouty Tophi typically occur
- Fingers
- ears
- bursae eg olecranon bursa