[Basic therapy of rheumatoid arthritis with thiopronine. Preliminary results]

A long term open study of the use of thiopronine in the treatment of 38 patients with ARA classified "classic" or "definite" rheumatoid arthritis is reported. Doses of the drug were increased from an initial 250 mg per diem by the addition of 250 mg every 15 days to 1 g per diem. After 6 months testing, results were satisfactory (good and fair) in 65% of the cases in both biological and clinical terms. In 15% of the cases, treatment was interrupted mainly due to mucous and cutaneous side effects. These preliminary results confirm reports in the literature and encourage further experiment.