Tophus

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Author: Mikael Häggström [note 1]

Preparation

A tophus specimen should be sent dry to the pathology department, and not be put in formalin.[notes 1] A touch prep can be done initially, and at least if urate crystals are not initially detected, the specimen is submitted in 100% alcohol for microscopy evaluation.[notes 1]

Microscopy evaluation

On a touch prep, look for needle-shaped crystals of urate. On polarized light, these will have negative birefriengence.

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 Formalin dissolves the crystals.
  1. For a full list of contributors, see article history. Creators of images are attributed at the image description pages, seen by clicking on the images. See Patholines:Authorship for details.

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References

  1. Bruce M Rothschild. Gout and Pseudogout Workup. Medscape. Updated: Jun 30, 2020

Image sources