Allopurinol partially prevents disuse muscle atrophy in mice and humans.

Disuse muscle wasting will likely affect everyone in his or her lifetime in response to pathologies such as joint immobilization, inactivity or bed rest. There are no good therapies to treat it. We previously found that allopurinol, a drug widely used to treat gout, protects muscle damage after exhaustive exercise and results in functional gains in old individuals.

[Allopurinol and its role in the treatment of sarcopenia].

Xanthine oxidase (XO) is an enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of hypoxanthine to xanthine and uric acid and plays an important role in purine catabolism. The purine analogue, allopurinol, is a well-known inhibitor of XO widely used in the clinical management of gout and conditions associated with hyperuricemia. More recent data indicate that allopurinol reduces oxidative stress and improves vascular function in several cardiometabolic diseases, prolongs exercise time in angina, and improves the efficiency of cardiac contractility in heart failure.

Parapharyngeal abscess in a patient receiving etanercept.

Objective: To report a case of parapharyngeal abscess associated with Streptococcus viridans in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis receiving treatment with etanercept.

Case Summary: A 40-year-old man diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis had received treatment with nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, methotrexate, and deflazacort. Six months prior to admission, the patient had a Disease Activity Score of 3.

Walking recovery after an acute stroke: assessment with a new functional classification and the Barthel Index.

Objectives: To investigate walking recovery after an acute stroke by using both a new functional classification and the Barthel Index, and to identify factors associated with good recovery.

Design: A 1-year inception cohort study.

Setting: In- and outpatient setting in a district hospital.

Proposal and validation of a new functional ambulation classification scale for clinical use.

Objective: To validate a new functional ambulation classification.

Design: Validity study.

Setting: In- and outpatients of a district hospital rehabilitation service.