Demographic, clinical, and laboratory features of Turkish patients with gouty arthritis: A prospective cohort study

Abstract

Objective: We have conducted this study to evaluate clinical and laboratory findings and to gatherand evaluate information that would be useful in clinical practice, such as demographics, joint in-volvement patterns, laboratory anomalies, treatments applied, and responses obtained in patientsdiagnosed with gout.Methods: In our study, the demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of 94 patients diag-nosed with gout were evaluated. The patients were re-evaluated with regard to their clinical and lab-oratory findings at the end of the 1 st and 3 rd months, their responses to the treatment were observed,and where necessary, new treatment adjustments were made.Results: Seventy-nine (84%) of the patients were men, and 15 (16%) were women. The ages of thepatients ranged between 22 and 86 years with the average age being 57.5 years. The joint involve-ment during a gouty arthritis attack was most frequently observed in the 1st metatarsophalangealjoint (87.2%), followed by the ankle joint (26.9%), and the knee joint (23.7%). The joint involvementpattern was evaluated to reveal that the acute monoarticular arthritis was observed in 87 patients(93.5%), followed by acute oligoarticular arthritis coming in second in terms of frequency (26.9%). Anaverage attack was determined to last 10.7 days, and the average number of attacks in a year was 2.69.In our study, the colchicine treatment in 24 of our patients, in whom it was determined during theadmission and follow-up process that they have not had gouty arthritis attack in the past 3 months,was stopped. Five (20.8%) patients whose colchicine treatment was stopped later developed goutyarthritis attacks, and the colchicine treatment was restarted. On the other hand, 10 out of 38 patients(26.3%), who have either been continuing or had never been on colchicine treatment, were observedto experience a gouty arthritis attack during their 1st and 3rd month check-ups.Conclusion: In patients with gout, it is recommended that the related diseases, as well as the trigger-ing factors (alcohol, drug use, and dietary effect), be determined, the necessary lifestyle changes bemade, and the treatments started.