Increased prevalence of simple renal cysts in patients with gout
Rheumatology International, 04/04/2012

Hasegawa EM et al. – Gout patients have an increased prevalence of simple renal cysts associated with a lower occurrence of nephrolithiasis. Whether renal cysts have any protective effect in the development of nephrolithiasis in gout remains to be determined.

• Hundred and forty–six patients followed at the outpatient Gout Unit and 47 sex– and age–matched healthy kidney donors who had undergone routine renal ultrasonography, using a static gray scale and real–time B–mode units with a 3.5– or 5.0–MHz transducer, were evaluated for the presence of renal cysts.
• Demographic and clinical characteristics of gout patients were evaluated considering possible risk factors for the occurrence of simple renal cysts such as age, male gender, hypertension, and renal impairment.

• The prevalence of simple renal cyst was 26.0 % in gout patients and 10.6 % in control group (P = 0.045).
• Gout patients with simple renal cysts presented less renal lithiasis than those without this complication (5.2 vs 25.9 %; P = 0.003) in spite of an overall higher frequency of renal stones in gout patients compared to control group (20.5 vs. 6.3 %, P = 0.025).
• The presence of simple renal cyst in gout was not associated with previously reported factors such as age (P = 0.296), male predominance (P = 0.688), hypertension (P = 0.314), and renal impairment (P = 254).
• Moreover, no association with disease duration (P = 0.843) or tophi (P = 0.616) was observed.