Gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis, caused by the deposition of monosodium urate (MSU) crystals in peripheral joints and tissue. Detection of MSU crystals is essential for definitive diagnosis, however the gold standard is an invasive process which is rarely utilized. In fact, most patients are diagnosed or even misdiagnosed based on manifested clinical signs, as indicated by the unchanged premature mortality among gout patients over the past decade, although effective treatment is now available. An alternative, non-invasive approach for the detection of MSU crystals is X-ray dark-field radiography. In our work, we demonstrate that dark-field X-ray radiography can detect naturally developed gout in animals with high diagnostic sensitivity and specificity based on the in situ measurement of MSU crystals. With the results of this study as a potential basis for further research, we believe that X-ray dark-field radiography has the potential to substantially improve gout diagnostics.

痛风是最常见的炎症性关节炎，由尿酸钠 (MSU) 晶体沉积在外周关节和组织中引起。 MSU 晶体的检测对于明确诊断至关重要，但金标准是一种侵入性过程，很少使用。事实上，大多数患者是根据明显的临床症状来诊断甚至误诊的，过去十年来痛风患者的过早死亡率没有变化，尽管现在有有效的治疗方法。另一种检测 MSU 晶体的非侵入性方法是 X 射线暗场射线照相。在我们的工作中，我们证明，基于 MSU 晶体的原位测量，暗场 X 射线照相术可以检测动物自然发生的痛风，具有高诊断灵敏度和特异性。这项研究的结果可以作为进一步研究的潜在基础，我们相信 X 射线暗场放射成像有可能显着改善痛风诊断。