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The eleventh annual international G–CAN research symposium was held in Chicago, IL, on the 22nd and 23rd of October 2025. This hybrid meeting, a live face-to-face and virtual live symposium, was attended by 198 participants. Twenty-five researc...

The diagnosis of crystal-induced arthritis is routinely established by synovial fluid analysis. However, a synovial effusion is not always present, fluid aspiration is not always possible or practical, and synovial fluid analysis is occasionally subj...

For the 16th Anniversary this year, the ECN workshop is again held in downtown Paris. Every year the ECN workshop offers a unique opportunity for clinicians and researchers interested in crystals, inflammation, and crystal-induced diseases, including...

Calcium pyrophosphate deposition (CPPD) disease is a consequence of the immune response to the pathological accumulation of calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) crystals within joints. This clinically heterogeneous condition can cause significant disability,...

Objective: Monosodium urate (MSU) crystallization in human joints is poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate whether the length of MSU crystals varies in relation to organized ultrasound deposits, which may lead to longer crystals. Methods...

We conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study including only European men to test for a causal relationship between serum urate (SU), gout, and prostate cancer. Using genome-wide association (GWAS) data, we generated instrumental varia...

Gout is the most common inflammatory arthritis. Treatment of gout includes anti-inflammatory and urate-lowering agents. Robust guidelines by the American College of Rheumatology, the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology and other commit...

Patients suffering from erosive tophaceous gout who have failed oral urate-lowering therapies and pegloticase have few therapeutic options. Pegloticase failure (infusion reaction or lack of urate lowering) is primarily due to the development of anti-...

Gout and calcium pyrophosphate crystal deposition disease (CPPD) are frequently associated with comorbid disorders, including coronary artery disease and osteoarthritis, in which ectopic calcification with basic calcium phosphate crystals commonly af...

Gout is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by the deposition of monosodium urate (MSU) crystals within joints, leading to recurrent acute flares and long-term tissue damage. While various hypotheses have been proposed to explain the self-li...

This review provides an overview of the most significant developments in gout pathophysiology research published in 2024. Thirteen studies were selected based on originality, scientific rigor, and potential clinical impact and grouped into four major...

The 3rd Annual Meeting of the International Network on Ectopic Calcification (INTEC) was held in Faro, Portugal on 12–13 September 2024. This hybrid meeting brought together researchers and clinicians focused on the molecular, (patho)physiologi...

The evidence regarding allopurinol’s effects on renal function among people with hyperuricemia and gout has been conflicting, though clinicians are often cautious about using allopurinol in chronic kidney disease (CKD). We sought to examine the...

Objectives: Identification of monosodium urate (MSU) and calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) crystals in synovial fluid should ideally be performed within 24 h to ensure optimal diagnostic accuracy for gout and CPP arthritis. However, crystal identification...

Objectives: (1) To compare cytokine levels in participants with serum urate (SU) < 360 µmol/L, SU ≥ 360 µmol/L with and without monosodium urate (MSU) crystal deposition, respectively, and inter-critical gout. (2) To explore the ass...

The tenth annual international G-CAN research symposium was held in Alexandria, VA on the 13th and 14th of November 2024. This hybrid meeting, a live face-to-face and virtual live symposium, was attended by 201 participants. Over 20 research abstract...

Xanthine oxidoreductase (XOR) is the only enzyme responsible for uric acid production and is essential for preventing gout. While XOR inhibitors effectively reduce serum urate levels, they also influence purine salvage and de novo pathways, as well a...

Background: Mendelian randomization (MR) is a genetic epidemiological method used to infer causal relationships between exposures and outcomes. Its application in hyperuricemia and gout has grown exponentially owing to the ready availability of summa...

Monosodium urate, calcium pyrophosphate, and basic calcium phosphate crystals are the most common types of crystals found in the joints. Each type of crystal has been associated with the onset of different joint diseases. However, the mechanisms iden...

Genetic association studies in gout have identified genetic variants in or near genes involved in the biosynthesis and transport of urate and in immunological pathways. However, the causal role of the remaining genetic variants, genes, and pathways i...

Calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease (CPPD) has been shown to be associated with inflammatory arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis. However, few studies have investigated the correlation between CPPD and psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Our study aim...

This review examines the concept of “psout”, an overlap syndrome of hyperuricemic psoriatic arthritis (HU-PsA) and co-existing gout and PsA. The manuscript explores its epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical implications, and treatment s...

Gout management strategies remain a topic of debate, particularly regarding the efficacy of treat-to-target (T2T) and treat-to-avoid-symptoms (T2S) approaches. T2T, endorsed by major rheumatology societies, involves systematic serum urate (sUA) monit...

Lifelong urate-lowering therapy (ULT) is recommended for gout to prevent flares and urate deposition. However, concerns about its adherence, long-term side effects, and the necessity of continuous treatment after achieving remission raise critical qu...

Gout is a common inflammatory joint disease in China. In recent years, the prevalence of gout in China has been increasing and the onset age of gout has been trending younger. The common risk factors for gout in China include hyperuricemia, age, sex,...

Gout is the most common inflammatory arthritis, with a growing global disease burden. This conference report summarizes nine impactful publications dating from 11/2022 to 10/2023 to inform and improve clinical care in gout. The articles we present he...

We assessed changes in vascular inflammation and monosodium urate (MSU)-coded deposits after administration of Pegloticase in the vasculature of tophaceous gout patients using ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F-FDG) Positron emission tomography/computed tom...

Gout is a crystal-induced arthropathy in which monosodium urate (MSU) crystals precipitate within joints as a result of persistent hyperuricemia and elicit an inflammatory response. An intriguing aspect is the occurrence of gout in only 10–15% of hyp...

Background: The gold standard for crystal arthritis diagnosis relies on the identification of either monosodium urate (MSU) or calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) crystals in synovial fluid. With the goal of enhanced crystal detection, we adapted a standard...

15th Anniversary this year: the ECN workshop is set up in Paris, down town. Every year ECN workshop offers a unique opportunity for clinicians and researchers interested in crystals, inflammation, crystal-induced diseases including gout, to present t...

Periarticular calcifications are a common condition for rheumatologists. They are characterized by deposition of carbonated apatite in tendons or connective tissues around joints. It most commonly affects patients between 30 and 60, and the main loca...

Many preclinical reports have coalesced to identify a strong association between obesity and increased levels of uric acid (UA) in tissues and, importantly, in the circulation (hyperuricemia). Unfortunately, nearly all these studies were conducted wi...

Calcification refers to the deposition of calcium-containing crystals either intracellularly or within the extracellular matrix. Physiologic calcification is a normal process occurring during bone and tooth development and growth. In contrast, pathol...

Gout is a prevalent form of inflammatory arthritis caused by the crystallization of uric acid in the joints and soft tissues, leading to acute, painful attacks. Activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in mononuclear cells, along with inflammasome-indepe...

Uric acid is the final purine metabolite in humans. Serum urate levels are regulated by a balance between urate production, mainly in the liver, and its excretion via the kidneys and small intestine. Given that uric acid exists as a urate anion at ph...

The ninth annual international G-CAN research symposium was held in La Jolla, CA on the 7th and 8th of November 2023. This hybrid meeting, a live face-to-face and virtual live symposium, was attended by 191 participants. Over 20 research abstract sub...

A relationship between metabolic disorders and hyperuricemia is well established. The nature of the relationship—risk factor, causal agent, or byproduct—remains unclear. Recent studies of sodium–glucose transporter 2 inhibitors (SGL...

Population-based databases in Nordic countries offer unique opportunities for large-scale population-based epidemiological studies. The personal identity number enables researchers to link different registers at the individual level, which can be use...

Gout, an inflammatory disease orchestrated by interleukin-1β activation and release, is more prevalent in men. The clinical profiles of patients with gout report differences by sex. This study aims to investigate sex-specific cytokine profiles i...

Gout flares more frequently start late at night or in the early morning compared to during the day. The reasons for this are unknown. Activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in monocytes/macrophages is central to initiation of gout flares. Here, we revi...

Calcium-containing crystal deposition diseases are extremely common in rheumatology. However, they are under-explored compared to gout or other inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Major advances have been made in 2023 that will undoubtedly stimulate and...

The use of ultrasonography (US) has considerable potential for the diagnosis and monitoring of gout due to its capacity to detect monosodium urate deposits. In the last decade, a critical amount of scientific data has become available. Consensus-base...

Gout patients have higher mortality, heavier comorbidity burden, and lower quality of life than non-gout patients, but information is sparse on how gout affects advanced CKD patients. This study examined the prevalence and potential health impacts in...

In gout research, serum urate has been widely accepted as the primary endpoint in clinical trials of urate-lowering therapies by both the FDA and EMA for many years. However, for serum urate to be a meaningful outcome measure, it should reflect at le...

The 14th annual international European Crystal Network was held in Paris on 2 and 3 March 2023. This in-person meeting was attended by 93 participants. Over 40 research abstract submissions were received from investigators, ranging from early career...

Calcium pyrophosphate deposition (CPPD) disease is a crystalline arthritis that was described more than 60 years ago, yet our knowledge about this condition greatly lags behind other forms of arthritis. This is an exciting era for CPPD disease as a r...

Due to health concerns, the European Union has banned the use of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in consumables in February 2022, with a 6-month transitional period ending in August 2022. We studied the prevalence of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in...

Imaging modalities such as ultrasonography (US) and dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) have been recognized for their abilities to detect monosodium urate (MSU) crystals. The main described features of gout detected by DECT (tophus) or US (tophus...

Ultrasound is a pivotal exam in calcium pyrophosphate deposition (CPPD) identification. It has been demonstrated to be feasible, accurate, and reliable for CPPD diagnosis. Even if standardized definitions and a scoring system for CPPD have been estab...

Gout is at least three times more prevalent in males than in females. However, concurrent with rising total gout prevalence, complex factors, including comorbidities, diet, lifestyle, and aging, have promoted higher gout prevalence in females. This n...