Tight control in gouty arthritis (TICOGA)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Effect of tight urate control in gouty arthritis compared to flare based treatment escalation (TICOGA), a randomised clinical trial
IRAS ID
314061
Contact name
Philip L Riches
Contact email
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 5 months, 30 days
Research summary
Control of gout can be achieved with use of preventive medicines such as allopurinol or febuxostat, however in practice many patients do not have their medicine dose escalated to an effective level. There remains uncertainty about the best approach to ensure that gout flares are brought under control. We want to determine if escalation of urate lowering therapy is best guided by a strategy that targets a low level of urate in the blood (treat-to-target approach), compared with a strategy that escalates treatment only in those individuals who continue to suffer flares of gout (treat-to-flare approach). The treat-to-target approach will incorporate participant self-testing of urate levels using a finger prick test, and treatment advice being sent through a smart phone application developed by researchers in NHS Lothian and The University of Edinburgh. This approach has been shown to be very effective in achieving urate targets. We wish to compare the number of flares in participants adopting this approach compared to participants whose medicine dose is escalated at regular intervals if they have continued to suffer flares of gout. We aim to recruit about 240 patients to the study.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 5
REC reference
22/WS/0106
Date of REC Opinion
22 Jul 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion