2023-10-16 06:58:29
Uric acid deposits play a determining role in the systemic complications of gout.
By: Luisa Ochoa
October 16, 2023
During the successful edition of ‘Reuma Expo 2023: Towards personalized medicine’, an initiative of the Puerto Rican Foundation for Rheumatic Diseases, Dr. Eddie Rodríguez Castro addressed the renal and systemic complications of dropwhich go beyond joint involvement.
The drop It is typically a form of arthritis that is characterized by sharp pain, redness, and tenderness of the joints. Pain and inflammation occur when too much uric acid crystallizes and deposits in these areas.
The nephrologist explained that “the drop It is characterized by the accumulation of monosodium urate that accumulates in different tissues of the body. The body recognizes this substance as an external agent and that activates the inflammatory system and creates tissue damage.”
Role of uric acid in gout and kidney damage
The body may produce too much uric acid or the kidneys may excrete too little of it. Therefore, this disease is strongly related to chronic kidney failure and other kidney problems.
“The drop It is not a disease limited to the joints, since it causes various damages to organs of the body, the liver, the pancreas, the eyes, bones, kidney tissue and the heart,” indicated Dr. Rodríguez.
He also added that, “all substances in the blood pass through the kidney and the kidney is the body’s filter, so if we have a substance like uric acid at uncontrolled levels causing inflammation, it can cause damage to the joints.”
Elevated uric acid levels can lead to systemic complications
It is estimated that in the United States regarding 9.2 million people suffer from drop. Although having high uric acid levels in the blood is not synonymous with dropCertainly, every patient with drop will have large amounts of uric acid.
“The higher uric acid a patient has, the worse their condition will be and the deposition of uric acid is not always evident and the patient may arrive at the doctor with a lot of inflammation,” he pointed out.
By not being able to expel large amounts of uric acid, tophi may appear, which are deposits of uric acid that develop in cartilaginous tissue, tendons and soft tissues.
According to medical literature, tophi usually develop following a patient has suffered from the disease for many years. These deposits can accumulate in different tissues, which can lead to serious complications of health if you don’t intervene in time.
“The tophi are the tip of the iceberg because there is much more damage internally,” he said.
“The drop It is a chronic disease and we must treat it as if it were diabetes or hypertension. It is not just a disease of the joints, so it is important to treat it as soon as possible,” said the nephrologist.
See the full program here.
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