gout and sleep apnea

Question  Over a decade ago, pulmonologists were investigating the monitoring of uric acid in their critical care patients to determine if they were receiving sufficient oxygen. They had determined that hypoxia causes a catabolic process in the body's cells in which the adenosine triphosphate undergoes a process of degradation, with its final stage being the irreversible generation of uric acid. Since excess uric acid is known to cause gout, why hasn't the hypoxia from sleep apnea been linked to gout?
 
Answer  That's pretty interesting and it certainly makes sense. Since obesity is strongly associated with both gout and sleep apnea, you would need to study a lot of skinny sleep apnea patients to prove your point. From a practial perspective, gout is fairly easy to diagnose and no one would treat sleep apnea merely to treat gout. So proving the association might be as they say in a slightly derogatory fashion, merely an academic exercise.

Last update: 06:46 PM Thursday, April 12, 2007

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Alan Matsumoto, M.D.

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