Named the “Disease of the Kings”, gout (podagra) is one of the oldest diseases reported
in medical literature and has modern clinical relevance due to its impact on morbidity
and premature mortality [
1
,
2
]. The peak age of onset of gout is in the fourth to sixth decade of life with a strong
male predilection [
[3]
]. The risk of gout is higher in people with a family history; however the existence
of many risk factors (such as male gender, increasing age, obesity, chronic renal
impairment, hypertension (metabolic syndrome) and certain diets with high purine i.e.
red meat, seafood, and liver and alcohol content [
[2]
]) shows that environmental factors also play an important role [
1
,
2
]. Heritability of hyperuricemia is the main driver for the deposition of urate crystals
in and around joints and tendons. Untreated, continuing crystal deposition can result
in irreversible joint damage [
1
,
2
]. Urate crystal deposition (tophus) also occurs in soft tissues after about a decade
of suffering [
1
,
2
].Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 04, 2016
Accepted:
July 20,
2016
Received:
July 18,
2016
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
