What is Gout Kidney
Overview
Gout is a disorder of the purine metabolism pathway in the body that causes an increase in uric acid in the blood, resulting in tissue damage. The main manifestation is redness, swelling, heat and pain in the joints, commonly known as “gout”, which is actually the deposition of uric acid crystals. Some patients ignore the existence of gouty kidney damage because they do not have joint symptoms, and only have elevated uric acid found on physical examination. Mou Shan, Department of Nephrology, Shanghai Renji Hospital
What is uric acid?
Uric acid is the metabolic product of purine nucleotides in human body. 80% of purine nucleotides are produced by human cells metabolism and 20% are obtained from food. Under normal circumstances, the human kidneys can excrete uric acid and maintain a normal concentration of uric acid in the blood.
Why does uric acid rise?
The accumulation of uric acid in the body can be caused by excessive production or low excretion of uric acid in the body. Decreased uric acid excretion is mainly related to some congenital genetic diseases of the kidney or chronic renal failure, while excessive production is related to metabolic enzyme deficiency, high purine diet, and blood system diseases.
What is hyperuricemia?
Hyperuricemia is a condition in which the serum level of uric acid exceeds 417 μmol/L in men and 357 μmol/L in women, which is the saturated concentration of uric acid in the blood, above which uric acid salts can be deposited in the tissues causing a variety of damages, often complicated by cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Although hyperuricemia does not produce clinical symptoms, it is quietly damaging the vital organs of the body, especially the kidneys, so we should pay attention to the dangers of hyperuricemia and take appropriate measures to control it early and effectively.
What is a high purine diet?
Alcohol can reduce the excretion of uric acid, animal offal is high purine food, gout patients should strictly limit such food, eat less animal offal, overeating and alcohol abuse, and prevent obesity. (Table 1)
Table 1: Purine content in 100g of food
Category I
Category 2
The third category
Category IV
Very slight
75
75~150
150~1000
Soda crackers, butter snacks, all kinds of fruits, dried fruits, sugar, eggs, dairy, soft drinks, tea, coffee, chocolate, all kinds of fats and oils, peanut butter, jam, all kinds of grains except for the second category, all kinds of vegetables except for the second category
Mackerel, tuna, white fish, lobster, crab, oyster, ham, lamb, chicken, cereal, bread, coarse grains, asparagus, cauliflower, string beans, green beans, peas, kidney beans, spinach, mushrooms, dried beans, tofu
Carp, cod, sea bass, halibut, shellfish, eel, eel, prosciutto, pork, beef, rabbit, venison, broth, liver, chicken broth, duck, goose, pigeon, quail
Pancreas, anchovy, sardines, beef liver, beef kidney, brain, thick gravy