Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with flurbiprofen: a comparison with enteric-coated aspirin

Summary

Forty patients with definite or classical rheumatoid arthritis were entered for 3 months in a double-blind trial, 20 patients each on 200 mg flurbiprofen or 4.0 g enteric-coated aspirin daily. Statistically significant improvements (Page Test, p<0.05) on flurbiprofen were reported during the course of the study for 7 out of 20 parameters: degree of pain, duration of morning stiffness, grip strength, torquometer, Ritchie articular index, number of swollen joints and patients overall assessment, while for aspirin a significant improvement was reported for 5 parameters: degree of pain, PIP joint size, Ritchie articular index and physician's overall assessment. The amount of improvement between flurbiprofen and enteric-coated aspirin differed significantly (Kruskal-Wallis H Test) only for 2 parameters: Ritchie articular index and number of swollen joints. In both cases the degree of improvement was greater on flurbiprofen than on aspirin. Side-effects were reported for 7 patients receiving aspirin (2 of which were severe enough that treatment had to be stopped) and for 3 patients receiving flurbiprofen. Except for 2 cases of tinnitus on aspirin, the side-effects were mostly gastro-intestinal in nature. A significant (Friedman S statistic) increase in uric acid was noted on flurbiprofen, while a significant decrease was found for patients receiving aspirin. A significant increase in blood urea occurred on flurbiprofen. Most values, however, remained within normal limits. The results suggests that flurbiprofen is better tolerated and at least as effective as enteric-coated aspirin in the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Key Words::

• Flurbiprofen
• aspirin
• analgesics, anti-inflammatory
• arthritis, rheumatoid