BLOOD AND URINE GOLD LEVELS DURING CHRYSOTHERAPY FOR RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

In this study the value of undertaking routine blood and urineestimations was assessed in relation to achieving maximum efficacyand safety in chrysotherapy. It was found that a favourableresponse to gold was forthcoming in approximately two-thirdsof patients and occurred irrespective of the patients' diseaseduration or severity, or the mean serum gold level or the meanurinary gold excretion, estimated immediately before the nextgold injection was due. The presence of rheumatoid nodules andthe patients' advancing age were associated with a less favourableclinical response to gold. Those patients who derived a marked benefit from chrysotherapydid so significantly earlier in their course than those whoderived only moderate benefit. A frequent correlation was seen in individual patients betweenserum gold levels and urinary gold excretion. This was mostmarked in those patients showing a favourable response to gold. ^*Paper presented at a combined meeting of the British Associationfor Rheumatology and Rehabilitation, The Heberden Society, theRheumatology and Rehabilitation Section of the Royal Societyof Medicine, and the Swiss Society for Rheumatology, Bristol,June 1974.