A 59-year-old male patient with long-standing tophaceous gout (more than 30 years) characterized by polyarticular involvement and recurrent disseminated tophi formation; his past medical history is relevant for poor adherence to urate-lowering medications, as well as persistent use of self-prescribed systemic glucocorticoids. Despite achieving therapeutic goals for serum uric acid levels, new tophi formation with an intradermal location in the form of "miliarial-type gout" was documented. Due to functional limitations, the patient underwent surgical resection of the olecranon bursa. This case illustrates a widespread and recurrent tophi formation associated with long-standing gout and regular and sustained glucocorticoid use, despite an adequate disease control based on serum urate levels and involving an intradermal location of tophi presenting as "miliarial-type" lesions. In addition, the coexistence of urate and cholesterol crystal deposition disease in olecranon gouty bursitis is presented. Finally, a sonographic extended field of view of lesions distributed along the patient's extremities is presented as a novel characterization of this condition.
Keywords: Cholesterol crystals; Glucocorticoids; Intradermal tophi; Miliarial gout; Ultrasound.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.