Vascular mortality in patients with gout and in their families.

A mortality study was performed to determine death rates from coronary and cerebrovascular pathology in 180 patients with gout and their families. Lipid profiles were also analysed. Neither male nor female gout patients after presentation to hospital nor their male or female first-degree relatives were found to have an increased risk of dying from coronary artery or cerebrovascular disease. Families of hyperlipidaemic gout patients had a slightly increased incidence among males of death from coronary artery disease, a finding which may reflect the hypercholesterolaemia found among these relatives. It could have influenced the vascular mortality rate in families of hyperlipidaemic gout patients without any relationship to the diagnosis of gout itself.