Arthritis may predispose patients to gout

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Arthritis may trigger the deposit of uric acid crystals in joints, the main cause of gout, according to a report in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Case reports and hospital-based case series have linked gout with the presence of arthritis in the same joints, the authors explain.

This led Dr. Edward Roddy and colleagues from University of Nottingham, UK to investigate whether patients with gout are more likely to have arthritis, and if the same joints are affected.

The researchers sent questionnaires to patients served by two general practices in Nottingham. A total of 164 subjects with confirmed cases of gout were evaluated.

Analysis of more than 5900 individual joint sites demonstrated a strong association between the site of acute attacks of gout and the presence of arthritis, the authors report.

"These data support the hypothesis that the presence of...arthritis at an individual joint site predisposes to the formation of urate crystals at that site," the investigators conclude.

SOURCE: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, October 2007.