Gout and hyperuricaemia in rural and urban populations.

Estimates of the prevalence of gout in different countries vary widely, but previously reported studies have related to selected groups, such as patients attending a hospital clinic, and no reliable information is available of the prevalence of the disease in the general population. Many wellauthenticated reports have shown that the incidence of asymptomatic hyperuricaemia is in the region of 25 per cent. in the blood relatives of patients with gout (Talbott, 1940; Smyth, 1957; Stecher, Hersh, and Solomon, 1949). These studies have been interpreted as showing that hyperuricaemia is due to the inheritance of a single autosomal dominant gene with higher penetrance in the male than the female, although Hauge and Harvald (1955) suggested that more than one gene might be concerned. The familial nature of gout has been recognized since antiquity and is not in doubt, but whether familial hyperuricaemia is necessarily always associated with an increased incidence of clinical gout is not clear. Data bearing on this question, which have been obtained during surveys carried out by the Field Unit of the Empire Rheumatism Council under the direction of Dr. J. S. Lawrence,