The relationship between ferritin and urate levels and risk of gout

Abstract

The urate-producing enzyme xanthine oxidase also releases iron from ferritin [19]. [...]the average levels of ferritin (and other iron measures) were also compared within the NZ and US gout cases by stratifying the data sets according to the usage of the xanthine oxidase inhibitor allopurinol. [...]the gout cases were ascertained differently between the NZ and US cohorts (by clinical diagnosis only and by a combination of clinical diagnosis and crystal-proven gout, respectively). [...]only a limited number of possible confounders were adjusted for in the serum ferritin versus serum urate/gout/flares analyses. The primary reason for using a limited set of confounders was the limited data available in the US gout sample set. [...]our observational epidemiological data can only support the observation that increased ferritin levels associate with serum urate levels, the risk of gout and the number of self-reported flares and cannot be used to claim that this association is independent of known confounders.