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The serum urate-lowering effect of probenecid was used to monitor compliance in a placebo-controlled study of prophylactic colchicine therapy for intercritical gout. Although all patients included in the analysis had satisfactory control of hyperuricemia, 20 patients receiving 1.5 mg of colchicine daily averaged 2.3 attacks of acute gout per year of therapy, compared to 18 placebo-treated patients who averaged 6 attacks per year (P < 0.05), confirming the effectiveness of prophylactic colchicine in this situation.

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8 male patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis were studied to determine the effect of administering supplements of pyridoxine hydrochloride, 50 mg/day for 3–5 weeks, on tests of immune function. In the 3 patients who initially had abnormal nitroblue tetrazolium reduction tests, the values returned to normal with therapy (p < 0.05). The generation of chemotactic factors from plasma was defective in all evaluated patients and improved after pyridoxine therapy in 4 of 5 patients (p < 0.01). The lymphocyte subpopulations changed with a rise in the populations of null cells after supplementation with pyridoxine. In addition, lymphocyte transformation in response to mitogens improved in the 3 patients who initially showed low values in these assays. The improvements occurred with pyridoxine therapy even though some patients who responded had no evidence for vitamin B₆ deficiency before therapy, as indicated by a normal erythrocyte glumatic-pyruvic transaminase index. We conclude that several parameters of immune function are improved with pyridoxine supplementation. Studies are necessary to establish the minimum daily intake of pyridoxine which will maintain improved values of these tests of immune function in hemodialysis patients.