Managing Gout in Primary Care (PDF)

Fernando Perez-Ruiz (MD, PhD) gained his MD qualification in The Basque Country University in 1985. After passing the Fellowship National Examination Trial, he applied for fellowship at Hospital Ramon y Cajal in Madrid, and joined the Rheumatology Board in 1991. He is a Senior Specialist in the Rheumatology Division at Cruces University Hospital, Baracaldo, Vizcaya, Spain, where he has worked from 1991 to date as a general rheumatologist. Although initially involved with clinical investigation and publications in lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia, in the last 20 years he has focused in, and is devoted to, crystal-induced arthritis, and especially gout. He gained his PhD qualification in Barcelona University through studies of classification and urate-lowering therapy in gout. He has presented over 200 scientific communications, over 50 lectures, and published over 100 papers and book chapters, most of them involving clinical investigation in gout or pyrophosphate arthritis. Currently he is also heading the crystal-induced investigation group at the BioCruces Health Investigation Institute. He is an active member of the Spanish Society for Rheumatology (Chair of the Spanish Group for Investigation of Crystal-Induced Arthritis since 2008) and an International Member of the American College of Rheumatology. He collaborates as Associated Editor of Rheumatology International and is a member of the Editorial Committee of Bone Joint Spine, Arthritis, Seminarios de la Fundación Española de Reumatología, and Reumatología Clínica, and formerly of Arthritis Care and Research. He is also an invited reviewer for over thirty international journals. He has collaborated with the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) Task Force for gout, EULAR group for pyrophosphate arthritis, the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) group for gout, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Guidelines for Gout, and has also coordinated the Spanish Guidelines for gout