[Juvenile gout with decreased activity of hypoxanthine-guanine-phosphoribosyl transferase and pheochromocytoma: partial persistence of tophi despite uric-acid reducing treatment for 12 years (author's transl)].

A now 45-year-old man with marked chronic tophous gout and recurrent nephrolithiasis has been followed for 12 years. First gouty symptoms appeared at age 18. Uric-acid reducing treatment freed the patient of symptoms, and bony and soft-tissue tophi in part regressed. The early onset and high urinary uric-acid excretion indicated increased uric-acid production. Decreased activity of the enzyme hypo-xanthine-guanine-phosphoribosyl transferase was demonstrated to be the cause of the hyperuricaemia, which led to an excessive purine synthesis. An almost complete loss of activity of this enzyme is the basis of the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. In the described patient all of the neurological and behavioural disorders of the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome were absent. A pheochromocytoma was found to be the cause of malignant hypertension, which had been present for many years.