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Febuxostat in the treatment of gout patients with low serum uric acid level: 1-year finding of efficacy and safety study

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Abstract

To retrospectively analyze the efficacy and safety of febuxostat on gout patients with low serum uric acid level. A study was conducted in Nanjing First Hospital from October 2015 to September 2016. Thirty nine acute gouty arthritis patients from the emergency and outpatient department were included. Patients met the 2015 Gout Classification Criteria revised by American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) and had urate deposition around the joints detected by dual-energy computerized tomography (DECT). Patients whose serum uric acid (SUA) were between 5.0 and 7.0 mg/dl (300–420 μmol/l) received febuxostat treatment to maintain the SUA level between 3.0 and 5.0 mg/dl for 1 year. Efficacy and safety of febuxostat were observed during the process. Three of 39 subjects were excluded because of adverse events (AEs) after receiving an initial febuxostat treatment for 2 months. Thirty six subjects were enrolled. The mean SUA level was reduced significantly from 6.51 ± 0.28 mg/dl at baseline to 4.24 ± 0.38 mg/dl and SUA of all subjects decreased by 34.8% compared with baseline. After 1-year treatment, the volume of tophus was reduced approximately 62.8%. Serum creatinine decreased stepwise in 8 gout patients with chronic kidney diseases from 162.5 ± 9.2 μmol/l to 131.4 ± 11.0 μmol/l. Two months after initiation of treatment, the number of gout flares began to markedly decrease and almost did not occur after 1 year. After the 1-year treatment of febuxostat, the average SUA level declined significantly, and the renal function improved gradually. There was nearly complete abolition of gout flares by the end of the study. Tophi resolved markedly compared with baseline as assessed by DECT. Furthermore, only a few people experienced adverse events. Febuxostat has a notable effect for gout patients in the lower SUA level range.

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Funding

The study received grants from the Key Programs of Medical Science and Technology Development Foundation of the Nanjing Department of Health (No. QRX11026) and the Science and Technology Development Foundation of Nanjing Medical University (No. 2014NJMU047).

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Author notes

  1. Minning Shen, Junyu Zhang and Kai Qian contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210006, China

    Minning Shen, Junyu Zhang, Kai Qian, Wenyu Xu, Bingjie Gu, Xiaoqin Wang, Qijie Ren, Leilei Yang, Hai Yuan, Dinglei Su & Xingguo Chen

  2. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Changzhou traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Changzhou, 213000, China

    Chunmei Li

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  1. Minning Shen
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  2. Junyu Zhang
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Correspondence to Xingguo Chen.

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Shen, M., Zhang, J., Qian, K. et al. Febuxostat in the treatment of gout patients with low serum uric acid level: 1-year finding of efficacy and safety study. Clin Rheumatol 37, 3107–3113 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-018-4283-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-018-4283-z

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