The Filipino and gout

Abstract

Hyperuricemia and gout has been recognized among the Filipinos in Hawaii, Alaska, and mainland United States for almost two decades. Several studies bearing out this impression have been reviewed. The awareness of these observation prompted an extension to the Filipino in his natural environment. These studies showed a lower mean of serum uric acid values in healthy subjects when using comparative enzymatic spectrophotometric determinations. Aside from genetic factors, Filipino hyperuricemia may become manifest because of environmental stress, including dietary stress, and investigators postulate that some Filipinos possess a renal defect that may lead to hyperuricemia due to renal inability to compensate for an increased purine intake which may occur in the shift from a low-purine Filipino diet to a high-purine Western diet in his new environment, as in the case of the Filipino immigrant. The clinical profile of gout as it exists in the Philippines has been compared and found to be similar generally to that of other series. The control of the hyperuricemia and gout has been satisfactorily accomplished in the Filipino patients with the long-term use of allopurinol, sometimes complemented with colchicine taken daily.