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New ACR publication features updated guidelines for treating gout
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The American College of Rheumatology has released two new publications with treatment guidelines and recommendations for patients with gout and polymyalgia rheumatica.
New criteria have been identified to classify and diagnose gout in collaboration between the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR). In a press release, ACR wrote that prior criteria have “suboptimal sensitivity and/or specificity” and that the new criteria are 92% sensitive and 89% specific in accurately identifying gout.
“The new criteria represent an international collaborative effort that incorporates the latest published evidence on imaging modalities, a data-driven approach with monosodium urate crystal (MSU) identification as a gold standard to reference key findings, and a decision analytic approach to inform the weighting of the scoring system,” Tuhina Neogi, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine in the Boston University School of Medicine and associate professor of epidemiology in the Boston University School of Public Health, said in the press release.
Neogi said the new criteria will also help researchers identify patients with gout who are best suited to populate clinical trials.
“The criteria enable a standardized approach to identifying a relatively homogenous population who have the same clinical entity of gout for enrollment in studies,” Neogi said. “Fulfillment of these criteria will help to ensure that patients with the same disease are being evaluated, which will enhance our ability to study the disease, including performing outcomes studies and clinical trials.”
The new criteria are based on a scoring system that includes the presence of at least one episode of swelling, tenderness or pain in the peripheral joint or bursa, characterization of the clinical pattern of joint or bursa involvement, laboratory markers such as serum urate and analyses of synovial fluid aspirate and results from several modes of imaging options, including a double-contour sign on ultrasound or the presence of radiographic erosion.
Reference: www.rheumatology.org.