Clinical and epidemiological aspects of gout, a dysmetabolic disabling disorder.

UNLABELLED: Gout is a disease caused by disturbances of uric acid metabolism and it manifests as rheumatic pain with various clinical and developmental issues, but without any major diagnosis problems; it might unfavorably interfere with other metabolisms, especially with carbohydrate and lipid metabolism that interact and erode each other.

AIMS: To provide clinical and laboratory data and to follow the development of gout in patients treated in the clinic.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

The study included 28 patients (25 male and 3 female patients) diagnosed with gout, admitted to the First Clinic of Rheumatology of the Clinical Rehabilitation Hospital Iasi during 2012-2013.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: A new diagnostic method, dual energy computed tomography, was effective in some selected cases of gout, as it may reveal uric acid crystals with specific densities in the damaged joints and periarticular soft tissues.

CONCLUSIONS

Gout is a disorder that occurs when the uric acid produced by the body is stored in the form of crystals in joints and/or soft tissues. In joints, uric acid crystals precipitate and cause inflammatory arthritis that leads to swelling, redness, heat, pain and joint functional impotence.