A medical history and a physical examination are often used to
diagnose
gout.
During the medical history, your health professional will typically
ask about any:
- History of gout in your immediate
family.
- History of sudden attacks of
arthritis affecting one joint, especially the big toe, foot, ankle, knee, wrist, or finger.
- History of wrist or ankle sprains or tendonitis without having an injury or your symptoms go away on their own in about a week.
- Recent
injury or surgery.
- Recent infections of the skin, kidney, bladder, or lung.
- Alcohol use.
- Exposure to
lead.
- Recent diets.
- Medical conditions, including
high blood pressure, high
triglyceride levels,
heart disease,
kidney disease, and
diabetes.
- Use of certain medications,
especially
diuretics and aspirin.
During a physical examination, your health professional will:
- Take your temperature.
Fever may accompany gout attacks.
- Examine
the skin over the painful joint to see whether it is warm, tender, red, or
peeling.
- Check the skin over the affected joint for cuts that may
be a source of infection.
- Feel the joint to assess
pain.
- Check the range of motion of the affected
joint.
- Examine your hands, elbows, feet, ankles, knees, and
earlobes for gritty, chalklike clumps of
uric acid crystals called
tophi.
If your medical history and physical examination clearly suggest that
you have gout, further testing may be postponed until treatment relieves pain
and swelling or until subsequent attacks occur.
If the diagnosis remains unclear after the history and physical
examination, your health professional may order a blood test to measure the
level of uric acid in your blood and a joint fluid aspiration test to examine
joint fluid for uric acid crystals.
