A simple definition of “self-report of gout or urate-lowering therapy use” has the best test performance characteristics of existing definitions that use routinely available data. This according to analysis of survey definitions of gout from 34 epidemiologic studies. Several definitions were applied to a test dataset, using monosodium urate crystal identification as the gold standard. Researchers found:

• For all tested Global Urate Genetics Consortium (GUGC) definitions, the simple definition “self-report of gout or urate-lowering therapy use” had the best performance (sensitivity 82%, specificity 72%).

• The simple definition had similar performance to a Study for the Updated Gout Classification Criteria (SUGAR) data-driven case-definition with 5 weighted items: self-report, self-report of doctor diagnosis, colchicine use, urate-lowering therapy use, and hyperuricemia (sensitivity 87%, specificity 70%).

• Both definitions performed better than the 1977 American Rheumatism Association survey criteria (sensitivity 82%, specificity 67%).

• Of all tested definitions, the 2015 ACR-EULAR criteria had the best performance (sensitivity 92%, specificity 89%).

Citation: Dalbeth N, Schumacher HR, Fransen J, et al. Survey definitions of gout for epidemiological studies: Comparison with crystal identification as the gold standard. [Published online ahead of print March 25, 2016]. Arthritis Care Res. doi:10.1002/acr.22896.