Faculty Bibliography

BACKGROUND:Vascular injury and inflammation during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are associated with increased risk of post-PCI adverse outcomes. Colchicine decreases neutrophil recruitment to sites of vascular injury. The anti-inflammatory effects of acute colchicine administration before PCI on subsequent myocardial injury are unknown. METHODS:In a prospective, single-site trial, subjects referred for possible PCI (n=714) were randomized to acute preprocedural oral administration of colchicine 1.8 mg or placebo. RESULTS:=0.001). CONCLUSIONS:Acute preprocedural administration of colchicine attenuated the increase in interleukin-6 and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein concentrations after PCI when compared with placebo but did not lower the risk of PCI-related myocardial injury. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique Identifiers: NCT02594111, NCT01709981.

OBJECTIVE:Assess clinical benefit in patients with chronic refractory gout who did not meet the protocol-defined criteria of responders to pegloticase. METHODS:This analysis used results from two randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess the clinical efficacy in responders and nonresponders to treatment (8 mg of pegloticase every 2 weeks [q2w]). Serum urate was measured before each infusion and the following were measured: assessment of gout flares, tophus reduction, Patient Global Assessment (PGA), tender and swollen joints (TJC and SJC), pain measured with a 100-mm visual analog scale (VAS) and a variety of patient reported outcomes (36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) Physical Component Score [PCS] and Arthritis-Specific Health Index Score [ASHIS]). RESULTS:The analysis included 36 persistent urate responders, 49 nonresponders, and 43 patients who received placebo. Results for both responders and nonresponders indicated significant reduction in tophi and improvements from baseline in PGA, TJC, SJC, pain, and ASHIS. No significant improvements were observed in the patients who received placebo. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Chronic refractory gout patients not achieving protocol-defined persistent urate lowering still achieve significant clinical benefits with pegloticase treatment, suggesting that transient reduction in serum urate may result in sustained clinical benefit.

Purpose: Current treatments for osteoarthritis (OA) remain inadequate. Accumulating evidence suggests that OA is an inflammatory disease, with a particular role for interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) a product of the NLRP3 inflammasome. Additionally, both calcium and urate crystals have been suggested to play potential roles in OA and both are recognized to activate the NLRP3 inflammasome to produce IL-1beta. Colchicine is an ancient and well-tolerated anti-inflammatory agent and has recently been shown to inhibit inflammasome activation and IL-1beta generation. Several studies have examined the impact of colchicine on various aspects of OA, with varying Results. We are assessing the potential benefits of colchicine on several short-term features of knee OA.
Method(s): The CLOAK (CoLchicine for treatment of OsteoArthritis of the Knee) study is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of colchicine (0.8 mgs daily) for 90 days. (Figure 1). We are identifying patients as they are seen in the rheumatology clinics, as well as calling patients from our knee OA database of prior studies. The recruitment goal is to enroll 120 subjects at least 50 years of age who have symptomatic knee OA with radiographic confirmation (Kellgren-Lawrence grade 2 or 3), and who are willing to forego other anti-inflammatory therapy (i.e., topical or oral NSAID and/or intraarticular steroids or hyaluronic acid) during the trial. The primary clinical outcome is the difference between treatment and placebo groups in pain improvement by visual analog scale, along with changes in the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) and mean doses of analgesics used. Inflammatory outcomes between the two groups include changes in plasma inflammatory markers (such as hsCRP, PGE2, and IL-1Ra) and peripheral blood leukocyte genomic studies. All patients are scanned by knee ultrasound pre- and post-treatment, with assessment for synovitis and effusion. We also aspirate synovial fluid when appropriate, and will analyze all available samples together for inflammatory markers.
Result(s): To date, 78 patients have been contacted or approached, 18 screened, and 17 enrolled. Six have completed the study, with a mean BMI of 30.3. All 6 remain blinded as to study group; however, the mean VAS pain score among the group decreased by 1.7 in the index knee (which had greater pain at baseline), while the mean KOOS scores for symptoms, pain, activities of daily living, sports activity, quality of life and KOOS global all improved. Individually, 4 of the 6 completing subjects demonstrated VAS score improvement with 2 of 6 demonstrating worsening, a pattern that was duplicated in most of the KOOS scores.
Conclusion(s): The CLOAK trial is testing the potential benefit of colchicine on pain and inflammation in knee OA, specifically in patients with moderate radiographic disease who are not taking other anti-inflammatory agents. Supported by an investigator-initiated grant from Hikma Pharmaceuticals. [Formula presented]
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Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic, multiorgan, systemic autoimmune disease that is more common in women than men and is typically diagnosed during reproductive age, necessitating sex-specific considerations in care. In women there is no substantive evidence to suggest that SLE reduces fertility, but subfertility may occur as a result of active disease, immunosuppressive drugs, and age-related declines in fertility related to delays in childbearing. Although pregnancy outcomes have improved, SLE still poses risks in pregnancy that contribute to poorer maternal and fetal outcomes. Cyclophosphamide, an important agent for the treatment of severe or life-threatening lupus, may adversely affect fertility, particularly with increases in dose and patient age. Fertility preservation techniques are therefore an important consideration for women and men before cytotoxic treatment. There is mixed evidence as to whether exogenous estrogen in the form of oral contraceptive pills or hormone replacement therapy may increase the risk for the development of SLE, but among women with SLE already diagnosed, combined oral contraceptive pills and hormone replacement therapy do not confer risk for severe flare and remain important in reproductive care. The higher incidence of SLE in women may nonetheless be attributable to effects of endogenous estrogen, as well as failures in X chromosome inactivation, increased Toll-like receptor gene products, and changes in microRNA function. A greater appreciation of the biological underpinnings and consequences of sex differences in SLE may lead to more targeted treatments and improved outcomes for patients with SLE.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW/OBJECTIVE:Hyperuricemia is highly prevalent, affecting approximately 38 million individuals in the United States. However, the significance of asymptomatic hyperuricemia - hyperuricemia in the absence of gout - continues to be debated. RECENT FINDINGS/RESULTS:Asymptomatic hyperuricemia results in monosodium urate crystal deposition in tissues, which may promote chronic inflammation. Intracellularly, hyperuricemia inhibits the master regulator adenosine monophosphate (AMP)-associated protein kinase and may condition innate immune responses through durable epigenetic modifications. At the population level, asymptomatic hyperuricemia is associated with multiple comorbidities, including hypertension, chronic kidney disease, coronary artery disease, and diabetes; limitations of these studies include that most are retrospective and some do not rigorously distinguish between asymptomatic hyperuricemia and gout. Treatment studies suggest that urate lowering may reduce the risk of incidence or progression of some of these comorbidities; unfortunately, many of these treatment studies are small or flawed, and not all study results are consistent. SUMMARY/CONCLUSIONS:Accumulating evidence suggests that asymptomatic hyperuricemia contributes to the comorbidities with which it associates and that proper asymptomatic hyperuricemia treatment may reduce future risk. Additional prospective trials are needed to definitely establish causality and support decision-making as to whether, and which patients with asymptomatic hyperuricemia would warrant urate-lowering treatment.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE/OBJECTIVE:The connection between gout and various cancers remains unclear. We assessed the relationship between gout and colorectal cancer in a population of veterans. METHODS:We reviewed the Computerized Patient Record System of the VA New York Harbor Health Care System to assess the 10-year occurrence of colorectal cancer in patients with gout undergoing colonoscopy, versus patients with osteoarthritis but no gout. RESULTS:Gout and osteoarthritis subjects were similar in age, ethnicity, body mass index, and smoking history. Among 581 gout and 598 osteoarthritis subjects with documented colonoscopies, the 10-year prevalence of colorectal cancer was significantly lower in gout (0.8%) versus osteoarthritis (3.7%) (p = 0.0008) patients. Differences in colorectal cancer rates remained significant after stratifying for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use. Among gout subjects, use of colchicine and/or allopurinol, as well as the presence/absence of concomitant osteoarthritis, did not influence colorectal cancer occurrence. On subanalysis, differences in colorectal cancer occurrence between gout and osteoarthritis subjects persisted among those who underwent diagnostic (0.5% in gout vs 4.6% in osteoarthritis subjects, p < 0.001) but not screening (0.9% in gout subjects vs 1% in osteoarthritis subjects, p = 1.0) colonoscopy. There was no significant difference in nonmalignant colorectal polyp occurrence between gout and osteoarthritis subjects. CONCLUSIONS:Subjects with gout had decreased colonoscopy-documented occurrence of colorectal cancer compared with osteoarthritis subjects, suggesting a possible protective effect.

OBJECTIVE:There is a lack of standardisation in the terminology used to describe gout. The aim of this project was to develop a consensus statement describing the recommended nomenclature for disease states of gout. METHODS:A content analysis of gout-related articles from rheumatology and general internal medicine journals published over a 5-year period identified potential disease states and the labels commonly assigned to them. Based on these findings, experts in gout were invited to participate in a Delphi exercise and face-to-face consensus meeting to reach agreement on disease state labels and definitions. RESULTS:The content analysis identified 13 unique disease states and a total of 63 unique labels. The Delphi exercise (n=76 respondents) and face-to-face meeting (n=35 attendees) established consensus agreement for eight disease state labels and definitions. The agreed labels were as follows: 'asymptomatic hyperuricaemia', 'asymptomatic monosodium urate crystal deposition', 'asymptomatic hyperuricaemia with monosodium urate crystal deposition', 'gout', 'tophaceous gout', 'erosive gout', 'first gout flare' and 'recurrent gout flares'. There was consensus agreement that the label 'gout' should be restricted to current or prior clinically evident disease caused by monosodium urate crystal deposition (gout flare, chronic gouty arthritis or subcutaneous tophus). CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Consensus agreement has been established for the labels and definitions of eight gout disease states, including 'gout' itself. The Gout, Hyperuricaemia and Crystal-Associated Disease Network recommends the use of these labels when describing disease states of gout in research and clinical practice.