TY - JOUR T1 - Racial/ethnic variation and risk factors for allopurinol-associated severe cutaneous adverse reactions: a cohort study JF - Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases JO - Ann Rheum Dis DO - 10.1136/annrheumdis-2017-212905 SP - annrheumdis-2017-212905 AU - Sarah F Keller AU - Na Lu AU - Kimberly G Blumenthal AU - Sharan K Rai AU - Chio Yokose AU - Jee Woong J Choi AU - Seoyoung C Kim AU - Yuqing Zhang AU - Hyon K Choi Y1 - 2018/04/13 UR - http://ard.bmj.com/content/early/2018/04/13/annrheumdis-2017-212905.abstract N2 - Objectives To examine associations of race/ethnicity and purported risk factors with hospitalised allopurinol-associated severe cutaneous adverse reactions (AASCARs).Methods We used US Medicaid data to identify incident allopurinol users between 1999 and 2012. We examined the risk of hospitalised AASCARs according to race/ethnicity and purported key risk factors and calculated relative risks (RR).Results Among 400 401 allopurinol initiators, we documented 203 hospitalised AASCAR cases (1 in 1972 initiators). The average AASCAR hospitalisation was 9.6 days and 43 individuals (21%) died. The multivariable-adjusted RRs for AASCARs among blacks, Asians and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders compared with whites or Hispanics were 3.00 (95% CI 2.18 to 4.14), 3.03 (95% CI 1.72 to 5.34) and 6.68 (95% CI 4.37 to 10.22), respectively. Female sex, older age (≥60 years), chronic kidney disease and initial allopurinol dose (>100 mg/day) were independently associated with a 2.5-fold, 1.7-fold, 2.3-fold and 1.9-fold higher risk of AASCAR, respectively. In our combined demographic analysis, older women (≥60 years) of a high-risk race/ethnicity (blacks, Asians or Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders) had over a 12-fold higher risk of hospitalised AASCARs than younger men of a low-risk race/ethnicity (whites or Hispanics) (multivariable-adjusted RR, 12.25; 95% CI 6.46 to 23.25).Conclusions This racially diverse (yet mostly white) cohort study indicates that the risk of hospitalised AASCAR is rare overall, although blacks, Asians and Native Hawaiians/Pacific-Islanders have a substantially higher risk of hospitalised AASCARs, particularly among older women. These data also support the practice of initiating allopurinol at a low dose (eg, ≤100 mg/day). ER -