Urate Excretion in Patients With Acute Leukemia2

Abstract

Urinary urate excretion was measured in patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and acute myelocytic leukemia (AML), while on a low-purine diet in the 5 days immediately before and the 10 days after onset of antileukemic treatment. As a group, ALL patients demonstrated increased excretion in the posttreatment period. Observations in individual patients revealed that this metabolic response was not essential to attainment of a complete remission of the leukemia, nor did its presence assure that remission would ensue. As a group, patients with AML who did not respond to treatment with remission or a precipitous fall in leukocytes had no significant change in their urate excretion. Attempts to identify those patients who attained remission, on the basis of their urate excretion before treatment, were not successful.