Allopurinol-induced aplastic anemia in a patient with chronic kidney disease.
Aplastic anemia is a rare complication of allopurinol use. We report an unusual case of aplastic anemia associated with allopurinol therapy for hyperuricemia in a patient with chronic kidney disease. A 37-year-old female patient diagnosed with Stage III chronic kidney disease was admitted with pancytopenia. She had a history of taking allopurinol for 5 months. Her bone marrow showed extremely decreased cellularity (< 20%) and there was no malignant cell infiltration. She was free of infections, including parvovirus B19, cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus. These results suggested a diagnosis of aplastic anemia. Allopurinol was discontinued immediately and treatment with blood transfusions and prednisolone was begun. After 6 months, the bone marrow cellularity improved to approximately 70%. Recently, it was suggested that decreased activity of multidrug resistance P-glycoprotein may play a role in acquired aplastic anemia. So we measured the inhibitory effect of allopurinol and oxypurinol on P-glycoprotein activity. But neither allopurinol nor oxypurinol inhibited P-glycoprotein activity.
Kim
Y W
YW
Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Inje University, Busan, South Korea. kyw8625@chollian.net
Park
B S
BS
Ryu
C H
CH
Park
S J
SJ
Kang
S W
SW
Kim
Y H
YH
Song
I S
IS
Shon
J H
JH
D000328:Adult; D000493:Allopurinol / Q000009:adverse effects*; D000741:Anemia, Aplastic / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000628:therapy; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000150:complications*
D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D000493:Allopurinol