Gout Is Prevalent but Under-Registered Among Patients With Cardiovascular Events: A Field Study

Objectives: Gout is an independent cardiovascular (CV) risk factor with significant morbidity and mortality. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of gout, characteristics and management in a hospitalized population for CV disease, a topic that remains to be defined. Methods: An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out in patients admitted for CV events in the Cardiology, Neurology, and Vascular Surgery units of a tertiary center. Patients were selected following a non-consecutive, systematic sampling. Data about CV disease and gout were obtained from face-to-face interviews and patients' records. Gout diagnosis was established using the 2015 ACR/EULAR clinical classification criteria. The registration rate of gout was assessed by auditing patients' records and hospital discharge reports of CV events from the units of interest in the previous 2 years. To predict the presence of gout, multivariate logistic regression models were built to study the possible explanatory variables. Results: Two hundred and sixty six participants were recruited, predominantly males (69.9%) and Caucasians (96.6%) with a mean age of 68 years. Gout was identified in 40 individuals; thus, the prevalence was 15.0% (95% CI 10.9-19.2%). In 35% of cases, the diagnosis was absent from patients' records. Gout was found in 1.4-2.6% of hospital discharge reports of CV events, also indicating under-registration. The disease was long-standing, but with low reported rates of flares, involved joints, and tophi. At admission, only half of the gout patients were on urate-lowering therapy, being 38.5% of them on serum urate <6 mg/dl. The only independent predictor of gout was the existence of previous hyperuricemia (median serum urate in previous 5 years ≥7 mg/dl), with an odds ratio of 2.9 (95% CI 1.2-7.1); if hyperuricemia is not included in the model, the only independent predictor was chronic kidney disease (odds ratio 3.0; 95% CI 1.4-6.6). Conclusion: Gout is highly prevalent among patients admitted for CV events, with significant lack of awareness and suboptimal management, despite being a well-established independent CV risk factor.