Objective: To study the clinical and biochemical effects of a low starting dose for gold therapy in rheumatoid arthritis patients with a contact allergy to gold. Methods: Serum cytokines were assayed before and 24 h after the first injection of gold sodium thiomalate (GSTM). Results: Contact allergy to gold was found in 4 of 19 patients. Compared to gold-negative patients (starting dose: 10 mg GSTM), there was a larger increase in serum TNFalpha (p < 0.05), sTNF-R1 (NS), and IL-1 ra (p < 0.05) in gold-allergic patients. Conclusions: Cytokines are released in blood by GSTM in RA patients with gold allergy. To minimize the risk of acute adverse reactions the starting dose of GSTM should be lowered to 5 mg. Alternatively, patients should be patch-tested before gold therapy; in test-positive cases, 5 mg is recommended as the first dose. © 2002 Svensson et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
CITATION STYLE
Svensson, Å., Möller, H., Björkner, B., Bruze, M., Leden, I., Theander, J., … Linder, C. (2002). Rheumatoid arthritis, gold therapy, contact allergy and blood cytokines. BMC Dermatology, 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-5945-2-2
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