Allopurinol as a possible oxygen sparing agent during exercise in PAD

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Allopurinol as a possible oxygen sparing agent during exercise in peripheral arterial disease

• IRAS ID

  47575

• Contact name

  Allan D Struthers

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Dundee

• Eudract number

  2010-020662-23

• Research summary

  Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a common condition that arises due to the build up of atheroma in the arteries supplying blood to the peripheral muscles and other tissues. This imbalance between oxygen supply and demand becomes particularly apparent when patients with the condition are walking. The pain and weakness they experience (mainly in the calf but less commonly in the thigh) is known as intermittent claudication and resolves upon cessation of exercise.It is an important disease to study as it is (i) common (est. prevalence of symptomatic intermittent claudication in Scotland of 4.5%) and (ii) those with it have a 1.6 times higher relative risk of ischaemic heart disease. These patients also have a significantly higher mortality than age-matched controls at around 12% per year.There are two main aims of therapy ?? (i) to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events by way of standard secondary prevention measures (smoking cessation, anti-platelet, anti-hypertensive and cholesterol-lowering therapy, diabetic control) and (ii) to treat symptoms.Supervised exercise therapy has been shown to be beneficial in improving walking time and distance in selected patients with leg pain from intermittent claudication with an overall increase in walking distance of approximately 150 metres at three months.There are numerous drug treatments available for consideration in PAD patients (mainly cilostazol in the UK), but many of these have either undesirable side effects or no clear evidence of benefit. The range of increase in walking distance on cilostazol was reported to be a 50-76% increase over three months compared to 20% with placebo with some significant improvements in QOL indicators, although with a significant number of adverse effects (16% vs 8% on placebo) limiting therapy. The current cost (March 2010) is œ35.31/month.Other options for therapy include angioplasty and bypass surgery. At present these are only recommended for patients who fail to respond to medical therapy and have severely disabling symptoms (in the absence of significant exercise-limiting comorbidities).

• REC name

  Scotland A REC

• REC reference

  10/MRE00/51

• Date of REC Opinion

  19 Jul 2010

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion