Clinical efficacy and adverse effects of weekly single dose leflunomide in refractory rheumatoid arthritis

AimTo study the clinical efficacy and adverse events of weekly single dose of leflunomide in patients with refractory rheumatoid arthritis in comparison with conventional daily regimen.MethodsPatients with refractory rheumatoid arthritis were taken up for the study; 91 patients were enlisted of whom 3 became non-compliant and were excluded. A concurrent parallel study was designed with the patients divided into two groups and efficacy and adverse events recorded at third and sixth months.ResultsA total of 88 patients were included in the study and were divided into two groups. At the end of 6 months, in the daily group 37 (82.2%) out of 45 patients had disease activity score (DAS) less than 3.2 indicating a low disease activity and 8 patients (17.8%) had moderate disease activity. None had high disease activity. In the weekly group, 36 (83.7%) out of 43 patients had low disease activity and 7 (16.3%) had moderate disease. None had high disease activity. Four (8.9%) patients developed adverse reactions in the daily group. One patient (2.2%) had alopecia and the other (2.2%) had diarrhoea and were withdrawn from the study. Two (4.4%) patients had elevated liver enzymes and the drug was stopped at 6 months. None in the weekly group reported any adverse events.ConclusionsWeekly regimen was found to be better in terms of compliance and had a lower adverse effect profile. The result was statistically significant. Clinical efficacy of weekly therapy was found to be similar to that of conventional therapy in terms of DAS.     

我国健康成人血清中抗成人腹泻轮状病毒抗体调查

本文报告以未知血清作为第一抗体直接包被微量凹井板,用双抗体夹心ELISA法检测抗成人腹泻轮状病毒抗体,得到成功的结果。此法应用于检测从中国一些省市收集的1,380份健康成人血清中抗成人腹泻轮状病毒抗体,其中141份阳性,总阳性率为10.2%,各地的感染率不同。对25份阳性血清进行了阻断试验,结果是在阻断后的P/N比值全部低于阻断前的P/N比值。这25份阳性血清中有17份来自河北省迁安县一带农村,该地区在两年前曾发生成人流行性腹泻。西藏50份血清均阴性,海南岛50份血清中仅1份阳性。