Editorial Board member Fernando Pérez-Ruiz reflects on changing concepts in the understanding of gout, and reviews the latest developments in new urate-lowering medications for the management of gout.

Regular allopurinol use and keeping serum urate levels within the target range may be associated with a reduced risk for cardiovascular events in men with gout and no history of cardiovascular disease, observational study findings indicate.

The addition of methotrexate to pegloticase for the treatment of uncontrolled gout improves the rate of sustained urate-lowering response over 6 months, show findings from the MIRROR randomized controlled trial.

Supported self-management improves attainment of urate targets in people with gout, research suggests.

Khanna pointed out the significance of a reduction in rescue medication use, which she said “is critical for patients who have concomitant comorbidities and also have kidney disease and want to minimize use of systemic therapies.”

Study findings suggest that men with gout, particularly those with poor serum urate control, may have an elevated risk for lower extremity amputation.

A monthly selection of topical peer-reviewed articles from the Adis journals, curated by the editors.

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Serum urate concentration is a valid surrogate endpoint for the reduction or absence of gout flares, suggest study findings presented at the ACR Convergence 2021 virtual meeting and published in The Lancet Rheumatology.

Findings from an observational study designed to emulate a clinical trial suggest that treat-to-target serum urate-lowering strategies for gout are not associated with higher cardiovascular risk than less intensive approaches.

3–9 November: Keep up with the latest news and interviews from the conference.

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Among the patients with gout, urate-lowering therapy was more frequently used after (100%) than before the first biotherapy course (67.7%) (p = 0.002).

5 – 9 November: Preview the conference with session recommendations and updates on upcoming coverage.

How will the FAST trial results impact regulatory guidance & clinical practice?

Experts discuss the increasing use of telemedicine in rheumatology during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even if a causal association were to be demonstrated, robust intervention trials would be required to show that treatment of hyperuricemia reduces the risk for undesirable renal or cardiovascular outcomes, in order to justify prescription of urate-lowering therapies.