2005 ACR/ARHP Annual Scientific Meeting: Reports From
National Arthritis
Meeting
Arthritis Conference - Installment #1 (transcript) on Gout
William Shiel, M.D., FACP, FACR, Editor of MedicineNet's
Arthritis
Overview, Offers Perspectives Of Interest On Topics From 2005 Annual
Scientific Meeting of The American College of Rheumatology (held November 12-17,
2005)
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Listen now to
installment #1 (transcript) on Gout - From Dr. William Shiel who is at the Arthritis
Conference in San Diego, CA
(MP3 4:16min 1.96MB) |
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Arthritis Conference - Installment #1 (transcript) on Gout
Gout and Gouty Arthritis - New Treatment and Diagnosis
Monday, November 14 - This is Dr. William Shiel
reporting from San Diego for the 2005 annual scientific meeting of the American
College of Rheumatology -- the national arthritis meeting. Today I'd like to
discuss several very interesting papers related to gout that I believe are very
important for our viewers. They represent new information both in diagnosis and
treatment of gout.
Researchers from the
University of Oklahoma, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Chicago
report two very interesting papers on a new product of treatment called
febuxostat as a generic name that is useful for the long-term management of
gout. Febuxostat was shown to reduce the incidence of gouty attacks and gouty
arthritis more effectively than the long-term gold standard treatment for gouty
arthritis called allopurinol. Febuxostat
was also shown by the same research groups to reduce the size of the clumps of
uric acid
called tophus or tophi
(plural) which are annoying lumps that occur in the skin of patients with
chronic gout. The tophus size in these patients was reduced overtime very
effectively with the treatment of a febuxostat.
More News in the Field of Gout Treatment
It was shown by researchers
that treating the uric acid level very aggressively -- even below previous
standards (serum uric acid levels well below 6.0) much more effectively control
gouty arthritis then simply lowering the uric acid level to lower ranges of
normal. I think what we are going to see doctors doing in the future is
aggressively treating the serum uric acid as an integral part of the treatment
of gout.
There is also a new medication that's being proposed as a treatment for gouty
tophi -- the uric acid lumps of accumulation that can occur in the skin in
patients with gout. In this particular treatment it is given intravenously and
would be for patients who have resisted treatment responses to other drugs. This
treatment is called uricase. Uricase is an enzyme that in mammals, other than the
great apes and in humans, that exists naturally. This enzyme degrades uric acid
for these mammals since humans do not have it. The treatment with uricase was proposed as a possible treatment for gout. In fact when given intravenously, it
was shown by these researchers to significantly reduce the size of the tophi. So
I think we are going to see this product -- uricase undergo further scrutiny of
medical research to determine whether or not it might be an applicable treatment
for gouty tophi.
Gout Diagnosis
In the area of diagnosis of gout, a new imaging technique was studied by
researchers at Cooper University Hospital in New Jersey. It demonstrates that
using ultrasonography or ultrasound method (much like what a mother uses when
she's happily having a look at her baby in her womb), that this technique can be
used to look at the feet in patients who have inflamed joints and actually
detect the accumulation of uric acid over the inflamed joints of the classic
gouty foot. It remains to be seen whether this will be a practical method of
determining whether a patient has gout in the future, but this is an exciting
potential new avenue of diagnosis.
Go to Arthritis Center for more information.
Return to the 2005 Arthritis
Conference Update Index
2005 Arthritis Conference updates on: Gout,
Fibromyalgia,
Lupus,
Osteoporosis,
Osteoarthritis,
Rheumatoid Arthritis
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