ALLERGIC FACTORS IN GOUT

A number of recent papers on gout refer to it as a forgotten disease, implying thereby that it is frequently overlooked. In a series of 100 patients reported by Hench¹ approximately fifteen years had elapsed from the first attack before a correct diagnosis was made. The average age of onset.of gout is usually about 40. Although the majority of patients are men, women are not infrequently affected, and the disease has also been described in children.² It is generally recognized that the essential features of this condition consist of arthritis with or without podagra, hyperuricemia, deposits of sodium urate crystals in the articular, periarticular and subcutaneous tissues and, in a certain number of cases, of manifestations of cardiovascular or renal involvement. The complete reversibility of the arthritic attacks in the early stages and their irreversibility in the later phases, terminating in crippling chronic gouty arthritis with tophaceous deposits,