Following his third episode of gouty arthritis, a 50-year-old man sees you in th
ID: 243201 • Letter: F
Question
Following his third episode of gouty arthritis, a 50-year-old man sees you in the clinic. Each case was successfully treated acutely; however, your patient is interested in trying to prevent future episodes. He is not on regular medications and has a normal physical examination today. Blood work reveals an elevated serum uric acid level and otherwise normal renal function and electrolytes. A 24-hour urine collection for uric acid reveals that he is underexcreting uric acid. Suspecting that this is the cause of his recurrent gout, you place him on probenecid.
What condition necessitates the use of IV infusion of pegloticase?
Explanation / Answer
Pegloticase is used for the treatment of hyperurecemia in gout patients. The active substance in pegloticase has an enzyme called uricase which breaks down the uric acid into allontoin and it gets excreted via urine. Thus lowers the level of uric acid in blood.