Prevalence and Risk Factors for Peripheral Neuropathy in Chinese Patients With Gout

Peripheral neuropathies (PNs) are a group of disorders that affect the peripheral nervous system. PN in gout has been scarcely described. This study is conducted to determine the prevalence and related risk factors of PN, as assessed by vibration perception threshold (VPT) in patients with gout.

A total of 442 patients were included in the cross-sectional study. The VPT values were measured by using the Biothesiometer sensory quantitative tester on each patient. The VPT value of either limb higher than 15 V was considered abnormal and is considered to have PN. The univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to identify risk factors for PN in patients with gout.

We included 442 patients with gout, 97.5% men, 26.9% tophaceous gout, mean age 45.5 ± 15.2 years, and 7.4 ± 4.6 years of disease duration. The prevalence of PN in patients with gout was 11.1%. Patients in the abnormal VPT group were older, had a longer gout duration, and had significantly higher levels of waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, systolic blood pressure (SBP), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), as compared to patients in the normal vibration group (P < 0.05). The univariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that there was a significant association between abnormal VPT and age, duration of gout, SBP, C-reactive protein, ESR, presence of tophi, and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in all the subjects (P < 0.05). The multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that age (odds ratio, 1.094) and presence of tophi (odds ratio, 1.048) were independent risk factors for PN in patients with gout.

The abnormal VPT was significantly correlated with age and presence of tophi in patients with gout and the VPT level may be useful as a screening tool for assessment of PN in gout.