Hello and welcome to the zero to finals podcast. My name is Tom and this episode I'm going to be

talking to you about gout. And if you want to follow along with written notes on this topic,

you can follow along at zero to finals.com slash gout or in the rheumatology section of the

zero to finals medicine book.

So let's get straight into it.

Gout is a type of crystal arthropathy, which is associated with chronically high levels of

uric acid in the blood.

Crystal refers to the fact that urate crystals is what causes the problem, and arthropathy refers to the fact that urate crystals is what causes the problem,

and arthropathy refers to the fact that the problem is in the joints.

So what happens is urate crystals are deposited in the joint,

and this causes the joint to become hot, swollen and painful.

Gauti Tofi are subcutaneous deposits of uric acid under the skin rather than in the joint. And these subcutaneous deposits typically occur

around the small joints and connective tissues of the hands, the ears and the elbows.

The DIP joints or the distal interphalangeal joints at the ends of the fingers are the most affected

joints in the hands.

Gout typically presents with a single, acute, hot, swollen and painful joints.

The obvious and extremely important differential

diagnosis is septic arthritis. And septic arthritis is quite dangerous to the joint and can be

very destructive. So it's important to treat a hot, painful, swollen joint as septic arthritis

initially until it's proven not to be related to an infection.

So what are the risk factors for developing gout? It's very important to identify the risk factors because gout very rarely occurs in people without risk factors.

However, people who have many risk factors are much more likely to get the condition.

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