Purine and pyrimidine excretion in psoriasis: a comparison with healthy controls during allopurinol therapy

1 Urinary purine excretion has been investigated in two healthy controls and two patients with psoriasis, one a hyperuricaemic, one a normouricaemic. No difference was detected between the patients and controls. Therapy with allopurinol effectively lowered blood and urinary uric acid levels and produced a deficit in total urinary oxypurine excretion in both controls and patients with psoriasis. The concomitant increase in xanthine excretion was greater than the increase in hypoxanthine excretion and xanthine/hypoxanthine ratios (average 0.70 and 1.0 prior to therapy) were increased by allopurinol to an average of 3.0 and 3.8 respectively in the two groups. Allopurinol also reduced the excretion of 8-hydroxy-7-methyl guanine but no effect on the excretion levels of other minor purine bases was noted. 2 Allopurinol was metabolized similarly by both patients and controls, 84% of the administered allopurinol being accounted for as urinary metabolites. 74% of the drug in the urine was excreted as oxipurinol, 26% as unchanged allopurinol plus allopurinol riboside, the remainder being oxipurinol riboside. 3 Pseudouridine excretion in 25 healthy controls was 86.5 ± 17.8 mg/24 hours. Pseudouridine excretion was not excessive in the patients with psoriasis and was not altered by allopurinol therapy. 4 No abnormality or difference in purine or pyrimidine excretion in either patient was detected prior to or during therapy which could be related to the epidermal lesion.