FIGURE 1 Microscopic analysis of an aspirate from a tophus.
From the following article:
Successful treatment with rasburicase of a tophaceous gout in a patient allergic to allopurinol
Pascal Richette and Thomas Bardin
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Figure 1. Microscopic analysis of an aspirate from a tophus.
Numerous negatively birefringent needle-shaped monosodium urate crystals are detected by compensated polarized-light microscopy (original magnification 
40). Monosodium urate crystals are strongly birefringent when observed under polarized light, and negatively birefringent, appearing yellow when parallel, and blue when perpendicular, to the axis of slow vibration from the compensator.
