However, given the likely weak effect, confirmation of this will require larger gout sample sets.
Use of larger gout case sample sets should enable this to be done.
The largest gout GWAS published to date used 3,000 European cases nested within the cohorts used in the urate GWAS by Köttgen and colleagues [ 4].
Given that rs1165196 has a stronger effect in serum urate levels in Caucasian ([ 4] β = 6.205 vs. 6.050 for rs1183201) populations, however, this interpretation should await further testing in larger gout and serum urate sample sets.
The uncertainty of how representative our sample is of the general population with gout is another limitation of this study, one which we are presently addressing as part of a large epidemiological study of gout prevalence in western Sweden.
The objective of this study was to describe the main characteristics of a large population of patients with gout, their gout-related treatment patterns and prevalent comorbidities and to investigate the frequency and risk factors of flares during follow-up using a managed care population from the US.
Nevertheless, epidemiological studies such as the present one, which included a very large number of patients with gout, with a large US geographic distribution, can improve our understanding of management of gout in real world settings.
A large proportion of patients with gout continued to have raised sUA levels and recurrent gout flares.
Additionally, Dehghgan et al. reported association between markers in genes ABCG2 and SLC17A3 with both, serum UA levels and gout in a large cohort [6].
This model is highly efficient and therefore suitable for managing a large population of patients with gout, but not necessarily more effective than a case management approach.
