Urate in fingernail represents the deposition of urate burden in gout patients

Urate in the fingernails of gout patients and healthy volunteers was successfully detected by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultraviolet (UV) in our previous research. This study aimed to further investigate whether nail urate could be a proxy for the burden of monosodium urate (MSU) crystals deposits in gout. To this end, we conducted a study in two parts. Firstly, we successfully detected urate in the nail by HPLC–UV and evaluated nail urate concentrations in control subjects and patients with gout. As expected, we found that levels of nail urate were significantly higher in patients with gout than in healthy controls, and the nail urate level was significantly correlated with the volume of MSU crystals deposits measured by dual-energy CT (DECT). Secondly, we found that nail urate can reflect changes in urate levels in the body during urate lowering therapy through a 3-month follow-up study. Our results provide the possibility of quantification of urate in human fingernails as a non-invasive alternative for assessing MSU crystals deposits in gout.