Anakinra vs. Steroids for the Treatment of Gout Attacks in Patients With Renal Disease (ASGARD): A Feasibility Study

Gout is a common condition that affects 1 in 40 people in the UK. It causes painful "attacks" of joint swelling, redness and tenderness, mostly affecting the foot, ankle, knee, hand and wrist. It is common in people with kidney disease, who also tend to be older people with other medical conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. The investigators do not know the safest and best way to treat gout attacks in this increasing cohort of people. A lot of people are given treatment that can worsen their kidney disease, along with their other medical conditions. The investigators want to compare the safest treatment currently available, steroids, with a new treatment called Anakinra. This treatment stops the action of a chemical called interleukin-1 which has been discovered to play an important role in gout attacks. This treatment has already been used to treat gout attacks in a handful of patients with kidney disease. The investigators feel it may be a better alternative to steroid treatment which can sometime worsen diabetes, heart disease and blood pressure. Participants will predominantly be followed-up for one week and a final 8 week follow-up, and be recruited from hospitals in the East of England. A definitive scientific study comparing these two treatments would involve a big expensive study requiring large numbers of patients and large amounts of information to be collected. Before the investigators do a big study like this, the investigators want to perform a small study using a smaller number of patients (32 patients) over a period of 22 months in total. It will then give us information to plan a larger study to answer the question of which treatment may be better, safer and provides the most value for money for the NHS.