Tweet by Dr. John Cush

We have spent decades teaching that a gout flare is a joint problem: a hot, swollen, painful joint that we treat with anti-inflammatory drugs and move on from (i.e., the treat to avoid symptoms strategy). The campaign title says it well — gout is more than flares. I would add that a flare is…

Lowering serum urate and urate crystals in the body is indispensable for long-term management of gout. The pathophysiology is simple and powerful: no urate crystals, no gout flares. However, this simplicity in goal belies a nuanced consideration in management: how low should serum urate be…

A 5 year JAMA study shows that a treat-to-target (serum urate < 6 mg/dL) study finds that effective urate-lowering treatment (ULT) results in a significantly reduced cardiovascular risk in patients with gout. These findinds are significant knowing that: a) the majority of ULT prescribers do…