Acute gout with low uric acid

[Michael J Nolan]

I get an acute gout attack after eating sardines, liver or a few beers. When I go for tests my uric acid is actually below range. So I read this paper online, do I need to try colchicine to diagnose my gout?

Here is the conclusions: The diagnosis of acute gout attack should not be excluded in the presence of normal serum uric acid levels if the clinical manifestations or the positive response at colchicine are suggestive of gout. The low uric acid level is correlated with increased inflammatory factors and urinary excretion of uric acid.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25581951/

Thanks

[nobody]

Hi,
I didn’t see your question earlier because this forum has very little activity.
Many conditions can produce symptoms somewhat similar to gout. And gout isn’t usually something you get whenever you eat the wrong thing as some people imagine.
Could you clarify what exact uric acid values you got, and from what kind of test ? People who get tested at my lab and who get a uric acid value under their current range would be very unlikely to experience gout symptoms (unless they started treatment recently). But ranges are kind of arbitrary and change all the time. And you may have meant within the range (that’s what people usually call “normal”) as opposed to below the range…
Colchicine isn’t a good way to diagnose gout. People (including one of my doctors) do use it for diagnosis occasionally so I’m not saying you shouldn’t try it if you really have no other option but this is a dangerous drug and the results are likely to be ambiguous at best so you’re going to want to be working with a knowledgable doctor if that’s at all possible.

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