Rheumatoid arthritis in the elderly: Frequency of side effects of parenteral and oral chrysotherapy

The clinical history of 362 patients affected by Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) who were followed-up for a period of 1-10 years has been analyzed to evaluate the Side Effects (SE) induced by the drug treatment. The patients studied were taking the conventional therapy with gold salts: oral gold salts (OGS: Auranofin 6 mg/day) or parenteral chrysotherapy (PGS: aurothomalate 50 mg/week). The side effects (SE) induced by the drugs considered in this study were haematological, mucocutaneous and renal ones. Patients less than 60 years old (Group 1) have been analyzed separately in comparison with older patients (Group 2). 31.5% of patients in Group 1 and 32.3% in Group 2 experienced gold-dependent SE. Subjects with multiple SE were 5.7% among younger patients and 8% in the older cohort. Treatment withdrawal was decided in 18.2% of patients of Group l and in 19.1% of those of Group 2. No significant difference was found in the frequence and distribution of SE in these two groups. The analysis of the SE frequence according to the kind of treatment (oral or parenteral) and the age of the patients did not show any significant difference for the frequence of the single SE observed (mucocutaneous, hematologic, renal), occurrence of multiple SE and treatment withdrawal.