Gouty Arthritis Flashcards
What is gout?
a metabolic disease of a heterogeneous nature, often familial, associated with abnormal amounts of urates in the body and characterized early by a recurring acute arthritis, usually monoarticular, and later by chronic deforming arthritis.
Associated hyperuricemia (serum uric acid > 6.8) is due to what?
An overproduction or underexcretion of uric acid
Gout is most common in what type of population?
Pacific Islanders (Filipinos and Samoans)
What are the 2 types of gout?
- primary
- secondary
What is primary gout linked to?
Several genes, making it hereditary
What is secondary gout linked to?
Acquired causes of hyperuricemia, such as medications, myeloproliferative disorders, multiple myeloma, hypothyroidism, etc.
Ingestion of what promotes hyperuricemia?
alcohol
What type of patients often suffer attacks of gout? Why?
Hospitalized patients, because of changes in diet, fluid intake, or medications
About __% of patients with primary gout are men
90
When does gout onset typically occur in women?
postmenopausal
What is the characteristic nodular deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals with an associated foreign body reaction called?
the tophus
What is acute inflammation of gout believed to be initiated by?
the ingestion of uncoated urate crystals by monocytes and synoviocytes
What are important factors in precipitating acute gout?
Rapid fluctuations in serum urate levels, either increasing or decreasing
What is characteristic of chronic stage gout?
Tophaceous invasion of the surrounding tissue, with structural derangement and secondary degeneration (OA)
Uric acid kidney stones are present in -% of patients with gouty arthritis
5-10
What causes chronic urate nephropathy?
the deposition of monosodium urate crystals in the renal medulla and pyramids
What are the signs and symptoms of acute gouty arthritis?
- Sudden in onset
- Nocturnal
- More than one joint may be involved
- Involved joints are swollen and exquisitely tender
- Fever
Which joint is the most susceptible to gouty arthritis?
MTP joint of the great toe (“podagra”)
Where can tophi be found?
- external ears
- feet
- olecranon
- prepatellar bursa
- hands
Gout can evolve into chronic polyarthritis of upper and lower extremities that mimics what disease?
rheumatoid arthritis
A single uric acid determination during an acute flare of gout is normal in up to __% of patients. Therefore a normal serum uric acid level does not exclude gout.
25
Sodium urate crystals in joint fluid or material aspirated from a tophus are ____ shaped and _____ bifringent.
needle
negative
What are the differential diagnoses associated with acute gout?
- Cellulitis
- Pyogenic arthritis
- Pseudogout
What is the differential diagnosis associated with chronic gout?
Chronic rheumatoid arthritis