Gout is a chronic urate crystal deposition disorder. Left untreated, gout may result in progressive disease characterized by joint and bone destruction from tophaceous deposits and renal impairment due to gouty nephropathy. Hyperuricemia, defined as a serum urate concentration greater than 7.0 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), is the underlying metabolic aberration leading to urate crystal deposition in gout. Gout has several clinical presentations, including: recurrent acute attacks of inflammatory arthritis; deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals in joints, bones and even parenchymal organs (tophaceous gout); renal impairment; and uric acid nephrolithiasis.1 As serum urate levels increase beyond greater than 7.0 mg/dL, the risks for gouty arthritis or for renal calculi increase.~Febuxostat is a 2-aryl-thiazole derivative chemically engineered as a novel xanthine oxidase/dehydrogenase inhibitor. Febuxostat is being developed as an orally administered agent for the management of hyperuricemia in patients with gout.~Subjects with palpable tophi >10 millimeters (mm) in length and width and as round as possible will have the tophus measured on two separate visits by two different raters to assess the inter- and intra-rater reproducibility of direct physical measurement.
The purpose of this study is to determine the inter- and intra-rater reproducibility of direct physical measurement of tophus nodules in subjects with gout.