When it comes to gout, the first thing that comes to mind is the unbearable redness, swelling and hot pain at a certain joint!
Yes, gout is a common type of arthritis that is complex in terms of causes, symptoms, and treatment. From a clinical point of view, it is a crystal-related arthritis disease caused by monosodium urate deposition, which belongs to the category of metabolic rheumatic diseases, hyperuricemia is the basis of gout attacks, and at the time of the initial onset, the most typical symptom of the patient is joint pain.
According to the information available clinically, the vast majority of patients in China started from gout in the middle of the night, and suddenly there was abnormal redness and swelling and burning pain of the first metatarsal bone (big toe).
However, the damage caused by gout is not only joint pain, but repeated attacks of gout will cause a hard stone-like nodule at the joint, which is clinically called "tout stone".
Tophi is a nodule enlargement caused by chronic inflammation and fibrous tissue hyperplasia caused by monosodium urate crystals deposited behind soft tissue. Tophi can occur in many areas, such as ear chakras, big toe joints, fingers, wrists or elbows, knee joints, and so on.
As the disease progresses, it can even lead to bone deformities and bone damage. In general, the development of tophi often goes through the following three stages:
1. Mild tophi
In the initial stage of tophi, patients often do not have special symptoms, do not have pain during the acute attack, and only touch an abnormal stone-like mass in the affected area.
At this stage, tophi is smaller, stable in size, and grows slower, affecting only one joint, with no abnormal secretion and skin breakage. Affected joints are less prone to mobility impairment, no severe chronic pain sensations, and no invasive clumps or connective tissue destruction;
2. Moderate tophi
At this stage, the patient's tophi particle size is stable and does not show significant growth, but the number changes from single to multiple, and affects the patient's 2-4 joints. Moderate tophi grows more rapidly in some patients with altered uric acid levels and at an older age than they may have in the early stages.
In some patients, the joint skin of the affected joint may be broken and secretions may be excreted. And some of the affected joints may be accompanied by continuous inflammatory reactions such as redness, swelling, heat and pain;
3. Severe tophi
This stage is also known clinically as giant tophi, which is more and more numerous, and varies in size, with more than 4 joints involved. At this time, tophi has an aggressive mass or connective tissue destruction, there is a very high risk of infection, and the nature of tophi is unstable, tends to grow rapidly, and affects the normal activity of the joints.
At this time, the patient's affected joints are prone to uninterrupted redness, swelling and pain, and severe chronic tophi small joint inflammation reactions occur. At the same time, the affected skin of the patient will recur damage and discharge secretions.
Written in the end: It is not difficult to see from the above points that the more gout is not actively and effectively treated, the more likely it is to develop into tophi, and the symptoms of tophi are also becoming more and more serious.
Therefore, for patients who have been diagnosed with gout and perennial blood uric acid levels exceeding the standard, if the above symptoms suddenly appear, they must seek medical treatment for relevant examinations in time to avoid missing the best diagnosis and treatment of the disease.