Tuberculosis and its medicatioinls increase risk of gout in patients: Study
A new study published in the recent issue of International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases showed that the need for greater clinical awareness in this population is highlighted by the higher incidence of gout in tuberculosis (TB) patients and the correlation between comorbidities and TB treatments.
Gout is one of the most prevalent types of inflammatory arthritis in adults. Even while acute gout attacks usually go away on their own in two weeks, if treatment is not received, repeated pain episodes may worsen and lead to the chronic stage of the condition. Globally, tuberculosis is a very common illness and a serious public health issue. It is believed that medications used to treat tuberculosis (TB) raise uric acid levels and affect the development of gout. And so, assessing the risk of gout in TB patients was the aim of this investigation.
This research looked for incident cases of tuberculosis in the South Korean National Health Claims database for this investigation. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were used to quantify the risk in comparison to the general population after gout patients who had been diagnosed within 6 months of a TB diagnosis were identified. Thus, to determine the risk variables for gout, this study among TB patients was conducted by comparing people with and without gout in a 1:5 ratio.
Males, patients aged ≥70 years, and those diagnosed within the first 2 months made up 70.2%, 33.0%, and 52.8% of the 3848 gout patients, respectively. When compared to the general population, TB patients had a noticeably greater prevalence of gout. Gout was linked to heart failure, pyrazinamide and ethambutol usage, chronic renal disease, and hypertension, according to conditional logistic regression analysis.
Overall, this study found that TB patients are more likely than the general population to get gout. Gout in TB patients was linked to underlying conditions such heart failure, hypertension, chronic renal disease, and the use of pyrazinamide (PZA) and ethambutol (ETB), highlighting the need for increased gout awareness in this patient population.
Source:
Kim, C. Y., Ha, J. W., Jung, I., Han, M., & Ahn, S. S. (2025). Risk of gout among patients with tuberculosis: A nationwide cohort study in South Korea. International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases, 28(3), e70197. https://doi.org/10.1111/1756-185X.70197
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