IBD Shows Significant Association With Gout

An expansive study of data from several American health care systems found a strong association between inflammatory bowel disease—and especially Crohn’s disease—and gout, the investigators reported in JGH Open.

The authors noted that arthritis is a known extraintestinal manifestation and earlier studies have found altered uric acid metabolism among patients with IBD. The researchers collected data from a platform that aggregates electronic health records from 26 nationwide major health care systems in the United States. They identified adults diagnosed with Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) between 1999 and 2022 and within that cohort, also identified patients diagnosed with gout, and patients who had undergone intestinal resection.

“Out of the 69,260,780 patients in the database, we identified 209,020 patients with UC (0.30%) of whom 9130 had gout (4.3%). Additionally, 249,480 had CD (0.36%) of whom 14,000 had gout (5.61%). Males were more prevalent in the UC and gout group than in the CD and gout group (58% vs 51%). After adjustment, CD was significantly associated with gout (odds ratio [OR] 1.68, confidence interval [CI]: 1.60–1.75). UC was also significantly associated with gout (OR 1.38, CI: 1.31–1.44).”

The subgroup analysis of patients who had undergone intestinal resection found patients with CD had higher association with gout versus those without surgery (OR 2.34, CI: 2.25–2.43), as did patients with UC with intestinal resection (OR 1.53, CI: 1.49–1.56).

“IBD is strongly associated with gout, with higher correlation observed with CD. Intestinal resection is associated with an increase in the risk of gout. Patients with IBD who present with new-onset arthritis should be investigated for gout,” the investigators wrote.

Reference:

Hamid O, Alchirazi KA, Eltelbany A, Nanah R, Regueiro M. Increased prevalence of gout in patients with inflammatory bowel disease: A population-based study. JGH Open. 2023;(7):640–644