Allopurinol dose not escalated enough to reduce mortality

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.

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.