Gout Symptoms

  Gout is a group of chronic metabolic disorders caused by high purine metabolism. Its main clinical features are excessive production of uric acid in the blood or reduced excretion of uric acid by the kidneys, resulting in elevated uric acid in the blood, hyperuricemia and recurrent gouty acute arthritis, gouty stone deposits, gouty chronic arthritis and joint deformities. Prolonged gout often involves the kidneys and causes chronic interstitial nephritis and uric acid kidney stones.  Patients with early gout can only be detected by tests that reveal persistent or fluctuating increases in blood uric acid without any other obvious clinical symptoms, and some patients can be asymptomatic for years to decades. In the early stages of gout stone, “chisel-like” lesions in the joints may be detected by radiographic (x-ray) irradiation; the typical presentation of arthritis in the acute phase is often a midnight onset, waking up with severe pain in the joints. The most common joint is the first metatarsophalangeal joint, followed by the ankle joint, knee joint, wrist joint, finger joint and elbow joint in that order.  In the later stages, the disease is manifested as subcutaneous nodules, which can be observed with the naked eye or felt with the hand. This is due to the acidic ph value of urine, uric acid tends to form crystals and accumulate into stones, some of which can lead to obstructive urinary stones, kidney stones, etc.