An Innovative Chinese Herbal Formula for the Treatment of Gout
Status:
Not yet recruiting
Trial end date:
2025-02-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Gout is a chronic disease of deposition of monosodium urate crystals, which form in the
presence of increased urate concentrations. Gout is closely related to hyperuricaemia. Urate
deposits in the joint, causing joint swelling, pain, movement disorders, affecting a
significant portion of the population worldwide annually.
The underlying pathophysiology of gout is multifactorial, complex, and poorly understood.
Thus, gout remains one of the major therapeutic challenges. Currently, western medicine
treatment of gout flare includes colchicine, NSAIDs and glucocorticoids. These drugs act as
analgesics, anti-inflammatory and uric acid lowering drugs. Besides, management of gout and
prevention of acute flares of gout make a crucial part in gout management. To obtain uricemia
target, urate lowering treatment (ULT) has been widely used in conventional management of
gout. Allopurinol, probenecid and febuxostat are some of the examples of ULT. Although
researchers have carried out various studies on this disease, there are severe side effects
for patients with gout. Therefore, it is necessary to explore new treatments for gout with
good efficacy and less side effects.
Chinese medicine (CM) is nowadays widely used for managing gout in China and other East Asian
countries. Our principal Investigator (Prof. Zhi-xiu Lin), a highly experienced Registered
Chinese Medicine Practitioner working at the School of Chinese Medicine, The Chinese
University of Hong Kong, has been using a herbal formula (HKIIM-KU formula) to treat patients
with gout in Hong Kong for many years. This formula has been observed to be effective in
relieving and preventing gout and its related clinical manifestations. Hence, a double-blind,
randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter clinical trial will be employed in this study,
and it would be able to provide robust clinical evidence on the efficacy and safety of
HKIIM-KU formula for gout.