Gout and Cardiovascular Disease: Mechanisms, Risk Estimations, and the Impact of Therapies

Abstract

Gout is intimately associated with cardiovascular disease—especially in cases of an atherosclerosis origin, but also with others such as heart failure, atrial fibrillation, or aortic valve stenosis. Besides the common presence of vascular comorbidities in gout sufferers, the disease is—in itself—an independent cardiovascular risk factor, with disease events and mortality attributable to having this condition. This review aims to update the current knowledge regarding several grey areas of the gout–cardiovascular disease spectrum—particularly in terms of risk variations across sex or ancestries, potential monosodium urate crystal deposition in the artery tree as a pathogenic pathway, the efforts undertaken to assess risk estimations in the gout population, and recent controversies surrounding the effects of gout therapies on cardiovascular disease.