Gout symptoms

• High uric acid levels (in excess of 6.4 mg/dl)
• Uric acid can form acicular, or needle-shaped, crystals which can be deposited in joints and kidney and lead to extremely painful inflammation.
• These needle-shaped crystals form particularly where your body temperature is low, i.e. in your toes and fingers and frequently in your knees. Your body responds to them as to foreign bodies, with an inflammation, so that the affected joints swell up, and feel hot and painful.
• Often a single joint (typically the big toe, one finger, more rarely one knee) will suddenly experience painful swelling. These attacks often start at night and without treatment can last around 2 weeks.
• If this inflammation process remains untreated and lasts long enough, tophi can form on the affected parts. These are encapsulated uric acid deposits which restrict joint movement. In addition, the articular cartilage suffers from the inflammation and increasingly disintegrates.