Topics and Expertise: efflux

Study discovers why leading gout medication is ineffective for many

Tue Jul 14, 2015

Spiked rods of uric acid crystals from synovial fluid photographed under a microscope with polarized light. In patients with gout, such crystals can accumulate in the joints, causing pain and inflammation.

Allopurinol, the first-choice medication for treating gout—an excruciatingly painful condition that is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis, afflicts more than eight million Americans, and is on the rise worldwide—is not fully effective in more than half of patients.