In a new study, researchers found heart disease is a big risk factor for severe adverse skin reactions in patients taking allopurinol, a common gout drug.
The research was conducted by a team from Canada and the United States.
Allopurinol is a medication most commonly used to treat gout, a painful condition that is becoming more common globally.
As the US Food and Drug Administration recently issued a warning about possible heart adverse events from another gout medication, febuxostat, the number of allopurinol prescriptions may increase.
A previous Taiwanese study found a link between heart disease and increased risk of hospitalization for allopurinol-related severe skin reactions.
People with a specific genetic marker, the HLA-B*5801 allele, which is more common in Asian and black people, are at a much higher risk of this adverse reaction than those without the allele.
To understand the link between heart disease and hospitalizations for allopurinol-associated severe adverse skin reactions in a general population, the researchers looked at data from Population Data BC, which includes health and prescription information on almost all 4.7 million residents in British Columbia.
They found heart disease was linked to an increased risk of allopurinol-related adverse skin reactions, and that in people with both heart and kidney disease the risk was increased further.
The findings suggest that heart disease, like chronic kidney disease, is a risk factor for allopurinol-associated severe skin reactions.
But the authors note that allopurinol-related severe skin reactions are rare and that allopurinol plays an important role in the management of gout.
The lead author of the study is Dr. Hyon Choi, Department of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology.
The study is published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
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