title: Effect of parenteral allopurinol treatment in critically ill children in need of intensive care.
abstract: Intravenous allopurinol was administered in a dose of 5-10 mg/kg daily with continuous control of the blood level of the drug and its active metabolite in 12 infants or children in critical condition resulting from various illnesses. Only one died of the patients who were all in shock and whose state stagnated or progressed in spite of the usual intensive therapy. The importance of hyperuricaemia before treatment is emphasized as this is a common characteristic of hypoxic states and through urate nephropathy it further aggravates the course of the illness. Allopurinol may exert its beneficial effect not only by decreasing hyperuricaemia, but also by preventing the loss of purines from the hypoxic cells of the ischaemic tissues by inhibition of xanthine oxidase and/or diminishing the cytotoxic superoxide radical production, the source of which is xanthine oxidase.
mesh_terms: D000493:Allopurinol / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003422:Critical Care; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000188:drug therapy; D007223:Infant; D014511:Uremia / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D000493:Allopurinol