What Is Gout? Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, And Prevention

Content

• Further Reading On Gout
• What Are The Potential Complications Of Gout?
• Differential Diagnosis
• How Does A Doctor Diagnose Gout?
• Which Joints Are Involved In Gouty Arthritis, And Why Is It Most Common In The Foot?
• Treating Gout With Medications

Research is ongoing to find new strategies to prevent gout. New drugs are being developed to keep the body from having high uric acid levels and decrease the likelihood of a painful gout attack. Gout is usually diagnosed by a doctor based on the location of the inflamed joint and a history of having similar non-traumatic attacks of pain and swelling. The most reliable test for confirming gout is an arthrocentesis. Arthrocentesis is a procedure where fluid is withdrawn from an inflamed joint with a needle and syringe, using a sterile technique and a local anesthetic such as lidocaine. The fluid is sent to a lab where it is analyzed for the presence of uric acid crystals.

Further Reading On Gout

But as with any diet, sticking to a low-purine diet can be challenging. Evidence for particular foods to favour or avoid for gout is weak, and overall, diet contributes very little to variation in urate levels. Changing your diet can help reduce the frequency of gout attacks. Avoiding alcohol may reduce your chance of getting gout attacks.

What Are The Potential Complications Of Gout?

If you experience any symptoms of gout, make sure that you get treatment right away. Ignoring your symptoms can cause your condition to escalate and cause complications such as the formation of kidney stones. Gout can cause the formation of small crystals of uric acid under your skin as well. Gout is a kind of arthritis that involves the formation of miniature crystals inside your joints and around them. A person suffering from gout will experience swelling and severe pain in their knees, toes, ankles, and fingers.

Do tomatoes cause gout?

Since diet can play a role in increased blood levels of uric acid, it is worth paying attention to the foods that trigger you. Tomatoes are one food that many people with gout identify as being a trigger for gout flare-ups. Tomatoes contain two potential gout triggers: glutamate and phenolic acid.

Usually, uric acid levels are elevated for years before the onset of gout. In men, uric acid levels rise at puberty, and the peak age of onset of gout in men is in the fourth to sixth decade of life. However, onset may occur in men in their early 20s who have a genetic predisposition and lifestyle risk factors. In women, uric acid levels rise at menopause, and peak age of onset is in the sixth to eighth decade of life.

Learn about the four most common warning signs.Article Gout Gout is an inflammatory type of arthritis that more commonly affects men. In people with gout, an excess of purines causes uric acid to crystallize in the joints, causing inflammation and pain. The question of surgery for gout most commonly comes up when a patient has a large clump of urate crystals , which is causing problems. This may be if the tophus is on the bottom of the foot, and the person has difficulty walking on it, or on the side of the foot making it hard to wear shoes. An especially difficult problem is when the urate crystals inside the tophus break out to the skin surface. This then can allow bacteria a point of entry, which can lead to infection, which could even track back to the bone.

Some symptoms of gout can be like other health conditions. Make sure to see your healthcare provider for a diagnosis. People will have no symptoms after a first gout attack. Many people will have another attack in the next 6 to12 months.

New Gout Treatment Guidelines Emphasize Genetic Risk, Need For Medications

Gout frequently occurs in combination with other medical problems. Metabolic syndrome, a combination of abdominal obesity, hypertension, insulin resistance, and abnormal lipid levels, occurs in nearly 75% of cases. Other conditions commonly complicated by gout include lead poisoning, kidney failure, hemolytic anemia, psoriasis, solid organ transplants, and myeloproliferative disorders such as polycythemia. A body mass index greater than or equal to 35 increases male risk of gout threefold. Chronic lead exposure and lead-contaminated alcohol are risk factors for gout due to the harmful effect of lead on kidney function.

The most important differential diagnosis in gout is septic arthritis. This should be considered in those with signs of infection or those who do not improve with treatment. To help with diagnosis, a synovial fluid Gram stain and culture may be performed.

Joint X-rays can be helpful to rule out other causes of joint inflammation. Getting enough exercise and maintaining a healthy weight. An exercise plan can be individualized for the patient.

If you have kidney stones due to uric acid, you may need to avoid or limit foods that raise your uric acid level such as those listed below. Talk to your doctor about what foods you may have to avoid. They last only a week or so and then everything seems to go back to normal with no symptoms between episodes. If the disease is not controlled by medication, attacks may occur more often and may last longer. If your joints have been damaged, you may have joint stiffness and limited motion after an attack.

Joint pain usually begins during the night and peaks within 24 hours of onset. Other symptoms may rarely occur along with the joint pain, including fatigue and a high fever. The doctor will need to rule out other reasons for the joint pain and inflammation such as an infection, injury or other type of arthritis. The doctor may also take an X-ray, do an ultrasound or order a magnetic resonance imaging scan to examine soft tissue and bone. The doctor might also remove fluid from the painful joint and examine it under a microscope for uric acid crystals or bacteria indicating an infection.

Can you eat bread with gout?

White bread, pasta and noodles
Refined carbohydrates are safe to eat for gout sufferers because they have a low purine content. But too much consumption of refined carbohydrates can cause a rapid rise in blood sugar and increase one's risk of developing metabolic syndrome and diabetes.