Myocardial and skeletal muscle injuries following adenine arabinoside therapy

A healthy young male with chronic persistent hepatitis associated with positive HBsAg and HBeAg and without any predisposing factors for coronary artery disease was treated with a course of prednisolone and adenine arabinoside. At the end of therapy, he developed myocardial and skeletal muscle injuries. The temporal relationship between the administration of the drug and the monophasic nature of the myotoxic injuries strongly suggests that adenine arabinoside induced the clinical manifestations in the patient.