Allopurinol, when used to treat gout, may help prevent attacks of chest pain – angina, reports The Lancet.
Angina is a chest pain of cardiac origin, the most common symptom of heart disease and severely worsens quality of life. The main cause is narrowing of the coronary vessels of the heart. Every third patient has angina attacks at least once a week. Gout, also known as gout, gout and arthritis, is when the body produces too much uric acid.
Researchers from Dundee University, examining 65 patients with angina, have observed that attacks are prevented by the administration of a drug known for decades, but from other uses – allopurinol. The distance that the patients could travel painlessly increased by 25 percent.
Allopurinol – a xanthine oxidase inhibitor – reduces the production of xanthines and uric acid. That is why it is used in the treatment of gout, in which the precipitating excess of uric acid causes painful inflammation. According to the researchers, the analgesic effect of allopurinol in angina is due to the fact that it lowers the heart’s need for energy. Compared to many drugs used in cardiology, it is very cheap, safe and well-tolerated. (PAP)