CreakyJoints reports on a number of studies presented at the annual American College of Rheumatology (ACR) meeting that people living with gout should be aware of. HSS rheumatologists Theodore R. Fields, MD, FACP and others, offer their commentary on the updates.

People may be good candidates for an intravenous medication called pegloticase, which can dramatically lower uric acid levels over a short time. However, pegloticase is only effective about 40 percent of the time because many people form antibodies to it. This causes the medication to stop working for them or causes them to have reactions to it, explained Dr. Fields. At ACR this year, “a number of studies addressed a new strategy to prevent people from forming antibodies to pegloticase by using a medication with the pegloticase that suppresses antibody formation,” he continued. “These studies were small, but all suggested that the medications added to pegloticase all had a low risk of side effects during the treatment period, generally three to six months. All of them increased the effectiveness of the pegloticase.”

Read the full article at Creakyjoints.org.