The diagnosis of gout will involve considering a number of things. This is because most of the symptoms that the patient develops either internally or externally are such that they occur in some other diseases well. When a patient will approach a doctor, he will have to consider the things such as the medical history of the patient himself and his family examine the external symptoms and do number of clinical tests and X-rays.
As gout is, a form of among the 200 types of arthritis the pain swelling and inflammation in the joints will occur in if it is present. Therefore, the patients who show such symptoms can undergo the diagnosis of gout. During the diagnosis of gout, considering medical history of the patient and his family is important, as heredity is one of the major reasons, which can cause gout. Therefore, there are previous occurrences of gout in the patient or his family then there is greater chance of presence of gout.
After considering the history, the next thing that the doctors will look for is the serum uric acid level. If this level is more than normal then the uric acid can deposit in the joints. Therefore, the diagnosis of gout will involve serum uric acid test. The elevated uric acid level is not a definite indicator of gout as the normal people as well can have high uric acid levels.
The tests for serum uric acid levels are done during and attack as well as after the attack fades away. It must be checked whether the level has come down after the attack or not. This is because if gout is present it will be lower than the one during attack. Normally the test is done after about 6 weeks after the attack fades away.
After this, the diagnosis of gout will involve looking for the reason for pain in the joints. First, look for uric acid crystals in the synovial fluid. The patients of gout will have some crystals of uric acid in the synovial fluid. However, another thing too look at in this test is whether there are any other infections present in the joints or not.
The symptoms of gout may also occur due to the some other deposits or damage in the joints. The deposits as of calcium etc can occur. Therefore, the diagnosis of gout will involve ruling other these possibilities. X-rays can be very useful for this purpose.
These are among some of things, which are to be looked at during the diagnosis of gout. A consideration of all these things will give a right conclusion whether gout is present or not.
