Gout: Risk Factors, Prevalence & Impact on Health

It may have once been known as Disease of Kings, but gout is a growing problem for ordinary people around the world. This book brings together multinational expertise to draw out an understanding of this disease that will be useful for the academic, the clinician and indeed the sufferer of gout. Highlighting recent understandings of the genetic background to the condition, with detailed pathophysiology and epidemiology, this book brings together and illustrates the disease mechanisms that cause gout. There follows both an academic and practical appraisal of the dietary risk factors for the development of gout, and the cardiovascular associations that heighten morbidity. With state of the art imaging modalities, the process and sequelae of the disease is captured within the human body, describing in pictures the damage and effect that gout crystals can produce. That damage can be avoided however, if simple principles of treatment and lifestyle modifications are followed. Horizon scanning for yet more drugs to address this growing and unmet need is highlighted as new options that have either recently become available or will be accessible in the near future are explored. With the increasing incidence and prevalence of this condition we are all going to have greater exposure to gout. This book is a timely resource, written by experts, yet accessibly written for all, and certainly not just for kings.