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INTRODUCTION: Gout is an increasingly common medical problem. The traditional risk factors of male sex and high red meat or alcohol consumption have been joined with newer risks such as increased life expectancy, and the metabolic syndrome (hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, truncal obesity). METHODS: This was a retrospective study to determine the epidemiology, clinical features, associated conditions as well as renal related conditions in existing gout patients followed-up in Rheumatology outpatient clinic, Hospital Tuanku Ja'afar, Seremban. RESULTS: Over a three month period, we identified 54 gouty patients on our follow-up, the majority being male, Malay ethnicity, with the age of onset in the third and fourth decades of life. Commonly associated risk factors were hypertension, hyperlipidaemia and obesity. However, underlying history of diabetes mellitus, alcohol consumption, and family history were not commonly associated with gout in our group of patients. Half of our patients had at least two or more joints involvement. About half of the patients with tophaceous gout had renal impairment. CONCLUSION: Our series of gout patients highlight the high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors. The high prevalence of tophi and renal impairment is a cause for concern.
RESUMO
A fast time-evolution method is developed for systems for which the dynamical behavior can be reduced to the eigenvector/eigenvalue problem. The method does not use the eigenvectors/eigenvalues themselves and is based on a polynominal expansion of the formal operator solution in the eigenfrequency domain. It is complementary to the standard time-integration approaches and allows one to calculate or simulate the state of a system at arbitrary times. The time evolution of, e.g., classical harmonic atomic systems and quantum systems described by linear Hamiltonians can be treated by this method.
