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Performance of the 2015 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism gout classification criteria in Thai patients

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Abstract

To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the 2015 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) gout classification criteria in Thai patients presenting with acute arthritis in a real-life setting. Data were analyzed on consecutive patients presenting with arthritis of less than 2 weeks duration. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated by using the presence of monosodium urate (MSU) crystals in the synovial fluid or tissue aspirate as gold standard for gout diagnosis. Subgroup analysis was performed in patients with early disease (≤2 years), established disease (>2 years), and those without tophus. Additional analysis also was performed in non-tophaceous gout patients, and patients with acute calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystal arthritis were used as controls. One hundred and nine gout and 74 non-gout patients participated in this study. Full ACR/EULAR classification criteria had sensitivity and specificity of 90.2 and 90.0%, respectively; and 90.2 and 85.0%, respectively, when synovial fluid microscopy was excluded. Clinical-only criteria yielded sensitivity and specificity of 79.8 and 87.8%, respectively. The criteria performed well among patients with early and non-tophaceous disease, but had lower specificity in patients with established disease. The variation of serum uric acid level was a major limitation of the classification criteria. The ACR/EULAR classification criteria had high sensitivity and specificity in Thai patients presenting with acute arthritis, even when clinical criteria alone were used.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all participants and Mrs. Antika Wongthanee for her statistical assistance.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Kanon Jatuworapruk

    Present address: Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Thammasat University Hospital, Pathum Thani, Thailand

  2. Panomkorn Lhakum

    Present address: Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital, Chiang Rai, Thailand

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand

    Worawit Louthrenoo, Kanon Jatuworapruk & Panomkorn Lhakum

  2. Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand

    Nuttaya Pattamapaspong

Authors
  1. Worawit Louthrenoo
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  2. Kanon Jatuworapruk
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  3. Panomkorn Lhakum
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  4. Nuttaya Pattamapaspong
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Worawit Louthrenoo.

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All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All of the participants gave their written informed consent before data collection. This study was approved by the ethical committee of the Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University. All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. (Approval No. MED-2559-03721).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Louthrenoo, W., Jatuworapruk, K., Lhakum, P. et al. Performance of the 2015 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism gout classification criteria in Thai patients. Rheumatol Int 37, 705–711 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-017-3708-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-017-3708-3

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