THE PATHOGENESIS AND TREATMENT OF GOUT.

Abstract

Since the classical investigations of Garrod we know that gout is characterized by the presence of uric acid in the serum and that the gouty attacks are caused by the precipitation of this acid into the joints. Every theory of gout must explain these characteristic features, and every pathogenic conception of the disease is based on these facts. Before we enter the discussion of the different theories which attempt to explain the pathogenesis of gout, I should like to give a short review of the formation of uric acid in physiologic conditions. While till about ten years ago uric acid was considered to be a product of imperfect oxidation of albuminous bodies, it has been proved since that uric acid has nothing whatever to do with albumin, but must be looked on as a specific oxidation product of the purin bodies derived either from the nucleic acid of the food or from the breaking down of the cell nuclei in the catabolism.