BRIEF REPORTS 716 gauge the effect of alcohol or diet on this difference. Additionally, there is considerable interisland travel, which makes it more difficult to isolate specific environmental factors that might account for the differ- ence. As expected, no significant difference was noted among the 3 groups classified according to radiation exposure. In the Framingham study (15), the prevalences of gout at mean ages of 44 and 58 were 0.2% and 1.5%, respectively, with the minimum ageon entry into the study being 30 years. Applying the same minimum age cut-off to the Marshallese at the time of SUA testing, the prevalence of gout was 0.85% at a meanageof 50, and 1.7% at 55. In this population, then, gout was encountered about as commonly as in the Framingham study. It is not clear, at least from the present data, that the Marshallese belong to the ‘‘one gouty family” described by Kellgren for Pacific populations (16). First, the prevalence and 5-year followup data on clinical gout are not too different from those reported in the U.S. Second, although mean SUA values were high in the Marshallese, the cumulative frequencies of values for men and for women 45 years of age or less approach a normal distribution, indicating a higher normal range than that found in the U.S. Hyperglobu- linemia, often found in tropical areas, does not con- tribute to the higher levels. These findings may not accurately reflect the true prevalence of hyperuricemia in the Marshall Islands because of the nonrandom nature of the investigation. Nevertheless, since inhabitants of the Marshall Islands presently number about 32,000, our findings describe more than 1% of that population. Acknowledgment. We gratefully acknowledge the secretarial services of Mrs. Geraldine Callister. REFERENCES 1. Prior I: Epidemiology of rheumatic disorders in the Pacific with particular emphasis on hyperuricemia and gout. Semin Arthritis Rheum 11:213-229, 1981 2. Zimmet P, Whitehouse S, Jackson L, Thoma K: The prevalence of hyperuricemia and gout in an urbanized Micronesian population. Br Med J 1:1237-1239, 1978 Burch TA, O’Brien WM, Need R, Kurland LT: Hyper- uricemia and gout in the Mariana Islands. Ann Rheum Dis 25:114-116, 1966 . Reed D, Labarthe D, Stallones R: Epidemiologic studies of serum uric acid levels among Micronesians. Arthritis Rheum 15:381-390, 1972 . Conard RA, Paglia DE, Larsen PR, Sutow WW, Dobyns BM, Robbins J, Krotosky WA, Field JB, Rall JE, Wolff J: Review of medical findings in a Marshallese popula- tion twenty-six years after accidental exposure to radio- active fallout. BNL Report 51261, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, 1980 Crowley LV, Alton FI: Automated analysis ofuric acid. Am J Clin Pathol 49:285-288, 1968 World Health Organization Technical Report Series, No. 646: second report of the WHO Expert Committee on Diabetes Mellitus, Geneva, 1980 . Keys A, Aravanis C, Blackburn H, Van Buchem FSP, Buzina R, Djordjevic BS, Fidanza F, Karvonen MJ, Menotti A, Puddu V, Taylor HL: Coronary heart dis- ease: overweight and obesity as risk factors. Ann Intern Med 77:15-27, 1972 . Alvsaker JO: Uric acid in humanplasma. V. Isolation and identification of plasma proteins interacting with urate. Scand J Clin Lab Invest 18:227-239, 1966 10. Alvsaker JO: Uric acid in humanplasma. III. Investigations on the interaction between the urate ion and human albumin. Scand J Clin Lab Invest 17:467-475, 1965 11. Mikkelsen WM, Dodge HJ, Valkenburg H: The distribution of serum uric acid values in a population unselected as to gout and hyperuricemia: Tecumseh, Michigan, 1959-1960. Am J Med 39:242-251, 1965 12. Wyngaarden JB, Kelley WN: Gout and Hyperuricemia. New York, Grune and Stratton, 1976, pp 21-37 13. Gertler MM, Garn SM, Levine SA: Serumuric acid in relation to age and physique in health and coronary artery diseases. Ann Intern Med 34:1421-1431, 1951 14, Prior IAM, Rose BS, Harvey HPB, Davidson F: Hyper- uricaemia, gout and diabetic abnormality in Polynesian people. Lancet i:333-338, 1966 15. Hall AP, Barry PE, Dawber TR, McNamara PM: Epidemiology of gout and hyperuricemia. Am J Med 42:27-37, 1967 16. Kellgren JH: The epidemiology of rheumatic diseases. Ann Rheum Dis 23:109-122, 1964