Abstract
THE INFLAMMATORY REACTION TO SODIUM URATE Its Possible Relationship to the Genesis of Acute Gouty ArthritisJ. E. Seegmiller, M.D., R. Rodney Howell, M.D., and Stephen E. Malawista, M.D., Bethesda, Md.A CUTE GOUTY ARTHRITIS is a dramatic but relatively uncommon accompaniment of hyperuricemia. Multiple etiologies for the hyperuricemia of primary gout have been defined in recent years.2,3 During this time, however, the mechanism of acute gouty arthritis has been studied relatively little, with the exception of a notation of the increased urinary excretion of certain purine compounds during the attack.4 Today the origin and development of acute gouty arthritis remains an enigma.The reputed inertness of sodium urate upon injection into the human has been a primary argument against assigning a role to this substance in the genesis of acute gouty arthritis.5 Since most previous work has been done with solutions of sodium urate, we have