Effect of ALlopurinol in Addition to Hypothermia for Hypoxic-ischemic Brain Injury on Neurocognitive Outcome - a Blinded Randomized Placebo-controlled Parallel Group Multicenter Trial for Superiority (Phase III)
Neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a major cause of death or long-term disability in infants born at term in the western world, affecting about 1-4 per 1.000 life births and consequently about 5-20.000 infants per year in Europe. Hypothermic treatment became the only established therapy to improve outcome after perinatal hypoxic-ischemic insults. Despite hypothermia and neonatal intensive care, 45-50% of affected children die or suffer from long-term neurodevelopmental impairment. Additional neuroprotective interventions, beside hypothermia, are warranted to further improve their outcome. Allopurinol is a xanthine oxidase inhibitor and reduces the production of oxygen radicals and brain damage in experimental, animal, and early human studies of ischemia and reperfusion. This project aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of allopurinol administered immediately after birth to near-term infants with HIE in addition to hypothermic treatment.
⁃ Term and near-term infants with a history of disturbed labour who meet at least one criterion of perinatal acidosis (or ongoing resuscitation) and at least two early clinical signs of potentially evolving encephalopathy as defined herein:
⁃ Severe perinatal metabolic acidosis or ongoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation at 5 min after birth:
⁃ At least 1 out of the following 5 criteria must be met
• Umbilical (or arterial or reliable venous) blood gas within 30 min after birth with pH\<7.0
• Umbilical (or arterial or reliable venous) blood gas within 30 min after birth with base deficit ≥16 mmol/l
• Need for ongoing cardiac massage at/beyond 5 min postnatally
• Need for adrenalin administration during resuscitation
• APGAR score ≤5 at 10min AND
⁃ Early clinical signs of potentially evolving encephalopathy:
⁃ At least 2 out of the following 4 criteria must be met:
• Altered state of consciousness (reduced or absent response to stimulation or hyperexcitability)
• Severe muscular hypotonia or hypertonia,
• Absent or insufficient spontaneous respiration (e.g., gasping only) with need for respiratory support at 10 min postnatally
• Abnormal primitive reflexes (absent suck or gag or corneal or Moro reflex) or abnormal movements (e.g., potential clinical correlates of seizure activity)