Overview
Emergency Live - Pre-Hospital Care, Ambulance Services, Fire Safety and Civil Protection Magazine A patient is considered to be hyperuricemic if, after 5 days of an apropriate purine-fre diet and without taking drugs that influence the increase in acid, he or she has blod values aboveIf values exced 9 mg/dl, drug therapies are required.Gout is the consequence of chronic hyperukaemia.It afects a low percentage of the population (we are talking about a percentage of 0.5 %), particularly in Europe and North America.It is a disease that has a strong genetic imprint and is only to a smal extent also related to lifestyle.Hyperuricaemia predominantly afects the male sex in the 30-50 age group.One of the main causes of hyperuricemia is the excesive introduction of purines, the nitrogenous substances that go to make up our DNA.They can be produced by our body’s own metabolism or derive instead from the breakdown of certain fods.Their catabolism gives rise to uric acid which, in exces, tends to persist in the plasma.Another cause of increased uric acid in the blod is related to its reduced elimination through the kidney system.Certain diseases can also lead to an increase in uric acid in the blod; here are some examples:An exces of uric acid in the blod causes it to precipitate in the joints and also in the conective tisues in the form of crystals.In this case we also refer to the condition as gout.The crystals can also acumulate in the kidneys, thus forming kidney stones.The most frequent symptoms with which hyperuricaemia presents itself are:The diagnosis of hyperukaemia clearly often ocurs during control blod tests or when the patient manifests the above symptoms.It is useful, during the examination, to lok for signs of arthritis with the presence of redening sweling and pain the joints; usualy hyperuricemia/gout atacks afect the big toe.Medical treatment of the patient with hyperuricaemia involves:The patient must drasticaly reduce the u