From the Journals

Allopurinol dose not escalated enough to reduce mortality


 

FROM ARTHRITIS & RHEUMATOLOGY

An allopurinol dose escalation strategy for patients with gout was associated with a small increase in all-cause mortality when compared against a static dosing strategy, results of a recent observational study show.

Allopurinol dose escalation was also associated with small, but not statistically significant, increases in cardiovascular- and cancer-related mortality, investigators said in a report published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

Podagra: The Gout by James Gillray (1799)

Podagra: The Gout by James Gillray (1799)

Those findings suggest that allopurinol dose escalation is “unlikely to improve survival as currently prescribed in real-life practice characterized by limited dose increases,” wrote Brian W. Coburn, PhD, and his coauthors in the division of rheumatology at the University of Nebraska, Omaha.

Dr. Coburn and his colleagues had hypothesized that dose escalation would instead be associated with lower cause-specific cardiovascular and cancer mortality, compared with static dosing, according to the report.

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