Impairment of Renal Function Due to Sulphinpyrazone After Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: A Prospective Double-Blind Study

In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial the renal function was studied in 60 patients recovering from coronary artery bypass surgery treated with a daily dose of 800 mg sulphinpyrazone (SP) or 880 mg acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) or placebo. Serum creatinine level increased (p < 0.05) during the first 2 days of SP treatment, but returned to its baseline level within 4 days under maintained therapy; during ASA and placebo therapy no significant changes occurred. Serum urea levels decreased (p < 0.01) during ASA and placebo treatments as time from surgery subsided; the decrease of serum urea level was delayed in the SP group compared with the ASA and placebo groups. Urinary excretion of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) was significantly decreased (p < 0.01) during ASA treatment; in the SP group, urinary PGE2 excretion tended also to decrease during the first days of treatment, the decrease being significant only on the 4th day (p < 0.01). The urinary excretion of kallikrein decreased significantly only in the SP group (p < 0.01), while the changes in the ASA and placebo group were not significant. We suggest that the rapidly reversible acute renal impairment during SP therapy was probably due to a transient renal ischemia caused by a drug-related decrease in urinary kallikrein excretion rather than by renal prostaglandin inhibition.