The incidence of gout recurrence was related to baseline blood uric acid levels

American researchers have found that the likelihood of gout recurrence is related to the level of uric acid (urate) in the blood at the time of diagnosis. The publication appeared in The Journal of the American Medical Association. In their retrospective population-based study, Natalie McCormick of Harvard Medical School and colleagues used electronic medical records of 3,613 British patients with data on first-diagnosed gout and the subsequent course of the disease. Their average follow-up was 8.3 years.

During the follow-up period, 1,773 recurrent acute attacks of gout were recorded in the participants. 95 percent of these occurred in patients with baseline serum urate levels of six or more milligrams per deciliter (357 or more micromoles per liter). 98 percent occurred in participants with baseline urate levels of five or more milligrams per deciliter (297 or more micromoles per liter). As the rate increased for each milligram per deciliter (approximately 60 micromoles per liter) above six (6.0-6.9; 7.0-7.9 and so on up to 10 and above), the ratio of incidence rates, calculated over a ten-year period adjusted for comorbidities, increased by an average of 1.61 (95 percent confidence interval 1.54-1.68) and the incidence of hospitalizations by 1.87 (95 percent confidence interval 1.57-2.23).

Thus, the level of uric acid at the manifestation of gout may serve as a prognostic sign of further attacks of the disease, the authors of the work concluded.