These days gout is diagnosed by spotting monosodium urate crystals within synovial fluid sampled from patients’ joints. This requires a compensated polarized light microscope (CPLM), a device large and heavy enough to remain in the hospital laboratory, preventing its use at the point-of-care.
Moreover, these types of microscope have an inherently narrow field-of-view and so make it difficult to see a sample all at once, and so impeding a much easier diagnosis.
