A Case of Secondary Gout Associated with Essential Thrombocythemia

ABSTRACT

Gouty arthritis is a metabolic disorder characterized by hyperuricemia, deposition of monosodium urate crystal in the joints, and recurrent episodes of acute inflammatory arthritis. Depending on the actual causes of hyperuricemia, gout is classified as primary or secondary gout. In myeloproliferative neoplasms, a turnover of nucleic acids is greatly augmented and therefore the blood concentration of uric acid may be markedly increased. But an acute attack of gout is extremely rare in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms. Essential thrombocythemia, one of the myeloproliferative neoplasms, is characterized by megakaryocytic hyperplasia in bone marrow and marked thrombocytosis. We report a case of secondary gout in a 66-year-old man with essential thrombocythemia.