Gout in Cyanotic Congenital Heart Disease.

Gout complicating cyanotic congenital heart disease is infrequently recognized. Its occurrence in blood dyscrasias associated with hyperuricamia is well documented (Gliickmann, 1910; Weber, 1934; Barr et al., 1950; Hickling, 1953). In polycythemia rubra vera, gout occurs in 5 to 9 per cent of patients (Tinney et al., 1945; Videbaek, 1950; Lawrence, 1955) and the complication has been referred to in secondary polycythmmia (Gutman, 1953) and investigated in a man aged 50 with severe cyanotic congenital heart disease (Yu et al., 1953). However, relatively few patients with severe cyanotic heart disease and polycythemia extreme enough to lead to hyperuricemia survive into adult life when the manifestations of gout are most common. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the occurrence of gout with cyanotic congenital heart disease, for it may be overlooked as a cause of arthritis in such patients.