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Clinical characteristics associated with subcutaneous tophi formation in Chinese gout patients: a retrospective study

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Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze clinical characteristics associated with the formation of subcutaneous tophi among Chinese gout patients. It was a retrospective outpatient cohort study. Five thousand six hundred ninety-three gout patients treated at the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University from March 2011 to February 2016 were included and divided into the tophus group and non-tophus group according to the presence of megascopic tophus. Relevant clinical information and biochemical parameters were analyzed to identify potential risk factors for the incidence of subcutaneous tophi. There are significant difference (P < 0.05) between the tophus and non-tophus groups in gender, family history, exercise, incidence of obesity, hypertension, renal dysfunction, kidney stone, coronary heart disease, and upper limb joint involvement. Between the two groups, significant difference (P < 0.01) was detected in the onset age (43.80 ± 13.82 years vs. 45.40 ± 13.77 years), duration of disease (10.28 ± 7.54 years vs. 5.11 ± 6.06 years), number of joint involved (3.11 ± 2.15 vs. 1.81 ± 1.35), systolic pressure (138.53 ± 19.46 mmHg vs. 133.87 ± 17.93 mmHg), diastolic pressure (89.55 ± 12.73 mmHg vs. 87.48 ± 11.77 mmHg), serum uric acid (487.15 ± 120.13 μmol/L vs. 458.89 ± 119.04 μmol/L), creatinine (93.87 ± 54.19 μmol/L vs. 85.51 ± 37.71 μmol/L), and creatinine clearance rate (Ccr) (93.05 ± 48.7 mL/min vs. 106.61 ± 51.76 mL/min). Logistic regression analysis suggests that duration of disease, number of joints involved, involvement of upper limb joints, kidney stones, diastolic pressure, and serum uric acid are associated with the subcutaneous tophi formation, while exercise and obesity are protective factors. The present study has identified several clinical parameters (such as duration of disease, involvement of upper limb joints, involved joints, kidney stone, hypertension) as risk factors for the incidence of subcutaneous tophi, which provides insights into the treatment and prevention of tophus.

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Abbreviations

SBP:

Systolic blood pressure

DBP:

Diastolic blood pressure

FBG:

Fasting blood glucose

TG:

Triglyceride

TC:

Total cholesterol

UA:

Uric acid

CR:

Creatinine

CCr:

Creatinine clearance rate

CHD:

Coronary heart disease

BMI:

Body mass index

ACR:

America College of Rheumatology

EULAR:

European League Against Rheumatism

WHO:

World Health Organization

ISH:

International Society of Hypertension

OGTT:

Oral glucose tolerance test

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Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (no. 2016YFC0903400), the National Science Foundation of China (no. 81520108007 and no. 31371272), and the Science and Technology Development Project of Shandong Province (no. 2014GSF118013).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Lidan Ma and Ruixia Sun contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, 16 Jiangsu Rd, Qingdao, 266003, China

    Lidan Ma, Ruixia Sun, Zhaotong Jia, Ying Xin, Xiaoyu Cheng, Tian Liu & Changgui Li

  2. Qingdao University, 308 Ningxia Road, Qingdao, Shandong, China

    Lidan Ma

  3. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Metabolic Diseases, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, 16 Jiangsu Rd, Qingdao, 266003, China

    Yaowu Zou, Lingling Cui, Zhen Liu, Xinjiang Wu & Changgui Li

Authors
  1. Lidan Ma
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  2. Ruixia Sun
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  3. Zhaotong Jia
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  4. Yaowu Zou
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  5. Ying Xin
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  7. Tian Liu
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  9. Zhen Liu
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  10. Xinjiang Wu
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  11. Changgui Li
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xinjiang Wu or Changgui Li.

Ethics declarations

The study was conducted with the fully informed consents from the participants and the approval from the Ethics Committee of the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University (qdfyll150227003).

Disclosures

None.

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Ma, L., Sun, R., Jia, Z. et al. Clinical characteristics associated with subcutaneous tophi formation in Chinese gout patients: a retrospective study. Clin Rheumatol 37, 1359–1365 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-017-3969-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-017-3969-y

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