[Treatment of rheumatic polyarthritis with levamisole in 26 patients]

Twenty-six patients with rheumatic polyarthritis (serologically positive) were treated with levamisole at a daily dosage of 150 mg. Treatment was continuous for 3 months and 2 days weekly afterwards. Although improvement may appear from the 1st month onwards, it is more frequent between the 1st and 3rd month (13 good or very good results among the 16 patients still treated) and may even improve afterwards (11 good or very good results among the 11 patients still treated in the 6th month). However, the value of levamisole, which appears to be an active drug against rheumatic polyarthritis, is limited by the frequency of side-effects. In 17 cases the trial had to be discontinued for this reason. The most serious side-effects were of haematological nature (2 leukopenias, 1 thrombocytopenia), but in these patients agranulocytosis was not found.