Tight Control of Gouty Arthritis Compared to Usual Care

A total of approximately 125 participants will be recruited. We anticipate that most participants will be identified following referral to rheumatology outpatient or on-call services in National Health Service (NHS) Lothian, or through NHS Lothian's gout liaison service. Additional patients may indicate their willingness to participate directly in response to study advertisements.

Based on baseline renal function and flare frequency, an individual treatment plan will be drawn up for all participants which will set a ceiling on the maximum dose of allopurinol to be used within the trial and determine the need for flare prophylaxis with colchicine. Participants will be randomized to the intervention group in a 1:1 ratio, with stratification by the need for use of flare prophylaxis.

All participants will have a smart phone application (GoutSMART) uploaded to their smart phones. Usual care participants will have a limited version of the GoutSMART application installed which includes background information about gout and provides a means for participants to maintain diaries of gout flares. Subjects in the usual care arm of the study will have treatment escalation decisions made by their GPs. Subjects in the treat-to-target arm will be taught to self-test serum urate using a BeneCheck Plus hand held device and provided with test strips. A full version of the GoutSMART application will be installed with the features mentioned above but also the facility to record a urate diary. Participants will be prompted to check their serum urate and enter the results into the GoutSMART application. Participants reporting a urate level >0.3mmol/l will be advised to increase the dose of allopurinol incrementally as specified in their treatment plan. No change will be advised in those whose urate levels are already at target. If the patient needs to increase allopurinol there will be an automatic reminder after two weeks prompting the patients to submit updated self-test results which will be handled in the same way as described above. Conversely for participants achieving target levels this will be acknowledged and a request to resubmit readings will be sent on a monthly basis.

Inclusion criteria

• Provision of informed consent.
• Age ≥18 years.
• Patient has sustained at least one flare of gout in the previous 12 months.
• Confirmed clinical diagnosis of gout as per ACR/EULAR criteria
• Serum urate >0.36mm/L.
• Patient has a smart phone and is able to install GoutSMART application.

Exclusion criteria

• Subject unable to provide consent
• Patient on maximum urate lowering therapy or where therapy cannot be escalated further due to intolerance/adverse reaction to either allopurinol or febuxostat.
• End stage renal failure/transplant
• Current prescription of medication known to interact with xanthine oxidase inhibitors such as azathioprine or mercapto-purine.