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Male patients with gout exhibit a decrease in the blood content of testosterone and estradiol and an increase in the content of progesterone. The amount of androgen and estrogen changed insignificantly but the level of gestagen abruptly dropped in female patients. Irrespective of the sex the concentration of lutropine and follitropine appeared to be decreased. Whereas the level of uric acid in men was in inverse relation to the production of estradiol, in the group of women--to the indices of progesteron. Changes in sex hormones depended on the form of arthritis and the type of nephropathy.

Problems of pathogenesis, diagnosis and therapy of gout and chondrocalcinosis in which deposits of uric acid salts and calcium are found in the articular tissue are of primary importance in modern rheumatology. The authors give observations of 10 out of 218 patients with primary gout in whom roentgenology had revealed signs of calcium salt deposits in the joints and periarticular tissue.

Antibodies to native (n) and denatured (d) DNA were studied in 70 patients with primary gout and 40 experimental animals with hyperuricemia. Titres of anti-nDNA in patients with gout considerably exceeded similar indices in donors and were in inverse relationship with the severity of arthritis and markedness of morphological manifestations of renal affection. Anti-nDNA directly correlated with the count of B-lymphocytes in the blood and indirectly with other immunological indices. Anti-dDNA directly correlated with the count of B-cells, reaction of lymphocytes to Kon-A and the titres of antirenal antibodies but were in inverse relationship with the content of uric acid and IgG in the blood serum. Long-term feeding of rats with yeast autolysate with ammonium molybdate and inosine was accompanied by the development of hyperuricemia, an abrupt drop in the level of DNA in the plasma and by a rise in the level of anti-DNA antibodies.