Uric acid has attracted the attention of scientists from a broad spectrum of disciplines, and in recent years dramatic progress has occurred within many of these disciplines. This volume is designed to fill void in the field. Major works in the past five years have provided comprehensive reviews of disorders of uric acid metabolism for the clinical (1-3) as well as short reports of recent progress for the interested scholar (4, 5). In Uric Acid the reader will find extensive reviews of relevant topics selected largely by virtue of recent progress in the field and written by those who, to a considerable extent, qre responsible for that progress. Seven chapters are dedicated to a description of uric acid synthesis, its control, diseases resulting from aberrations in the pathway, and effects of intermediates and end products of this pathway on other metabolic processes. The next five chapters describe our current understanding of the mechanisms by which uric acid is elimi­ nated by the organism. Then seven chapters review the factors responsible for the human "disease" produced by uric acid in the joints and kidneys. The final four chapters provide a summary of therapeutic approaches to control gout, the most important disease caused per se by uric acid.