Allopurinol

A more intensive serum urate target is difficult to achieve with oral urate-lowering therapy, compared with a standard target of 0.3 mmol/L, and fails to improve bone erosion scores in patients with erosive gout, according to a study.

Allopurinol is noninferior to febuxostat for gout when dosed appropriately as part of a treat-to-target strategy, according to data presented at ACR Convergence 2021.

Although multiple observational studies in gout have reported significantly diminished mortality with allopurinol, these cannot be used as evidence due to time-related biases that exaggerate the drug’s benefits, according to data.

Despite its increased cost in the United States, colchicine use to prevent gout flares while starting treatment with allopurinol remains “very cost effective,” according to findings published in Arthritis Care & Research.

Allopurinol is not associated with improving biomarkers of kidney damage in patients with asymptomatic hyperuricemia and stage 3 chronic kidney disease, according to a published post-hoc analysis.

Experts might use words like “suboptimal” or “insufficient” to describe gout management in the United States. To be fair, many gout specialists and rheumatologists use those exact words. But they also say that gout management in the U.S. is “crummy” or outright “sucks.” They say these things not behind closed doors or at dinner meetings, but from the dais of national and international rheumatology conferences. This suggests that gout management is beyond problematic.

ATLANTA — Gout is associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, as calculated via population-level cardiovascular risk equations, according to data presented at ACR/ARP 2019.

ATLANTA — The 2019 ACR gout guidelines call for treating patients to a target serum urate level of 6 mg/dL, a marked departure from the 2012 document, according to speakers at ACR/ARP 2019.

SAN DIEGO — Prolonged adherence to urate-lowering therapies is critical for patients to manage gout, yet only a fraction of patients receive the appropriate therapy, according to a presentation at the 2019 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology West.