Forty-five patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis were given D-penicillamine hydrochloride according to a fixed regimen for up to 2 years. The effects of treatment were observed both clinically and by the use of laboratory parameters.The results show that about 750o of patients exhibited objective improvement. Those with rheumatoid arthritis were found to do particularly well. The incidence, type and severity of side-effects are discussed.
Heberden Society 385 abandoned but this change has taken place over the period that you mention. Could some of the improvement of results have been the abandoning of immobilization therapy ? PROF. DE BLECOURT Immobilization was not used. We saw in the beginning too many patients treated as cases of tuberculosis or immobilized for other reasons and completely crippled, and initially there was a marked shortage of physiotherapists, but nowadays we have quite a number of very skilled physiotherapists and physiotherapy was much better in the later than in the earlier years. DR. A. G. S. HILL (Stoke Mandeville) Do we all mean the same thing when we talk about peripheral joints and would your figures be different if you separated the intermediate joints of the extremities from the true peripheral joints, i.e. those of the hands and feet. PROF. DE BLIE COURT The peripheral joints involved were the knees, elbows, ankles, hands, and feet, not the shoulders and hips. The intermediate joints (knees mostly) were more frequently affected than the feet and hands. D R. J. A. D.
We feel that Gram-stain examination and culture of the fluid is the best means of differentiating between infection of the peritoneurm and aseptic peritonitis, two conditions that require different management.-We are, etc.
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