982 Hypouricemia in the Course of Neoplastic Disease of Children

• Published in: Pediatric research Vol. 68; no. Suppl 1; p. 489
• Main Authors: Matsunaga, A, Toyota, K, Furuyama, M, Sendo, D, Mitsui, T, Hayasaka, K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01-11-2010
• Subjects: Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Pediatric Surgery; Pediatrics
• ISSN: 0031-3998; 1530-0447
• DOI: 10.1203/00006450-201011001-00982

Urate can be an antioxidant and might provide immunological regulation. Hyperuricemia is regarded as the most important risk factor for the development of gout. Nevertheless, hypouricemia has rarely received attention from researchers. We previously studied 104 patients who were undergoing chemotherapy for neoplastic disease in our hospital during 2002-2006 and detected hypouricemia in 62 of them (59.6%), particularly in patients with a solid tumor showing high mortality (42nd Japanese Pediatric Nephrology Congress Meeting 2007). No report describes effects of hypouricemia on the condition of the patients. Therefore, we studied the relation between clinical symptoms and hypouricemia during chemotherapy for neoplastic diseases in childhood.
We found 52 patients who had hypouricemia (< 2.0 mg/dl) during hospitalization in our institute during February 2008 - October 2009. Of the 52 patients, 38 had neoplastic disease, 7 had neurologic diseases, 5 were newborns, and 2 were metabolic diseases. No patient had renal disease. Among the 38 patients with neoplastic disease were 21 reporting episodes of infectious diseases, and 17 patients who complained of digestive symptoms. They tended to have such episodes when the level of serum uric acid was low. It is noteworthy that eight patients died.
Patients with neoplastic diseases frequently have hypouricemia because of undernutrition and/or renal tubular damage attributable to treatment with antineoplastic agents. Hypouricemia might influence prognoses because of a lack of antioxidant or immunological regulation activities.