Investigating gout flares: beyond a definition

Gout flares are a paramount component of disease burden inflicted by gout onto the patient. Furthermore, they are included in the core domain set for long-term gout studies recognized by Outcome Measures in Rheumatology. Along with a validated classification criterion for gout, gout investigators have turned their efforts into defining and characterizing the gout flare. This brief review will summarize the efforts that have been done to define and characterize a gout flare in clinical studies.

Recent findings include a validated definition of a gout flare that has been utilized in novel clinical studies, use of technology to monitor for gout flares and their effects on patient life, and qualitative analyses into the disease burden that a patient undergoes.

Although guidelines for core outcome domains have been well established, there is question in methods of measuring and reporting gout flares in long-term trials. Furthermore, there is question as to the effectiveness of the agreed upon instruments' abilities to fully capture the disease burden experienced by patients with gout. A combination of outcome measurements including binary data (gout flare present or absent) along with a comprehensive measurement of disease burden over time would theoretically provide a more accurate description of the disease and serve as a basis for intervention development.