Crystals due to drugs - N-acetylsulfamethoxazole

Source

Vincent Castiglione, Pharmacist, PhD student,Department of Clinical chemistry, University of Liège, CHU de Liège, Belgium.

Description

N-Acetylsulfamethoxazole (SMX) crystals found in the acid urine (pH 5.5) of a patient treated with intravenous sulfamethoxazole, 160 mg for 7 consecutive days. SMX, the main metabolite of the antimicrobial agent sulfamethoxazole, can cause crystalluria rarely. Crystals are typically found in acid urine, and may have different morphologies ( 'thick parallelepipeds' as in this case, 'coffin lids', 'hexagons', etc.). They can be identified with certainty only with infrared spectrophotometry (as it was in this case). For more information about SMX crystals see the paper: de Liso F, et al. 'How to identify sulfamethoxazole crystal in the urine', whose full details you can find in the 'Literature' page of this website.

Keywords

CRY