Table 2

Overview of recent treatment patterns of gout in the USA

Total ambulatory visits, and visits to primary care versus specialists

     Total number of ambulatory care visits
973 million
     Number of visits for gout
3.9 million (0.4% of total)
     Percentage of total visits for gout to:

          Primary care
69%
          Cardiologists
10%
          'Other specialists or unknown'
<16%
          Rheumatologists
<2%


Number of gout patient-specific anti-inflammatory prescriptions (absolute number of prescriptions/year)

     Colchicine
~381,000
     NSAIDs
~700,000
     Prednisone
~341,000


Number of gout patient-specific urate-lowering prescriptions (absolute number of prescriptions/year)

     Allopurinol
2.8 million
     Probenecid
8,000


Demographics of allopurinol prescribing: percentage of gout patients that are:

     Caucasian
80%
     African Americans
49%
     Asians
19%

Data from the 2002 calendar year extracted from the work of Krishnan et al. [4]. NSAID, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug.

Terkeltaub Arthritis Research & Therapy 2009 11:236   doi:10.1186/ar2738