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Biomedical subjects

V K Philips

Publications and source records attributed to V K Philips.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1977

Intramuscular gold for rheumatoid arthritis.

Improvement from gold therapy is not immediate but comes about very slowly. The patient and physician should be forewarned that as many as 8 to 14 weeks may pass before any benefit is noted, and that months of treatment may be required before improvement is sufficient to decrease disability. With effective therapy, signs of inflammation gradually decrease, pain abates, and function improves. Not all patients benefit, and whether beneficial results occur can be determined only by clinical trial. There is no advance method of determining whether treatment will be effective. Gold therapy suppresses rheumatoid inflammation and checks the progress of the disease. It should not be used alone, but shoud be part of a well-planned program of treatment carefully adjusted to the needs of the individual. This therapy will include steroidal and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents (including aspirin), which should not be reduced or abandoned until definite improvement from gold can be determined. With the possible exception of palindromic and juvenile forms, RA is the only rheumatic disease benefited by intramuscular gold therapy. The treatment should never be used for other forms of rheumatism.

Arthritis, Rheumatoid↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Chrysotherapy. A prospective study.

A 4-year prospective clinical study of chrysotherapy was designed to reexamine old beliefs and traditions, and to test potentially new approaches to chrysotherapy. The standard weekly dosage of 50 mg was compared to that based on 1 mg/kg body weight; no significant differences were found. The rapidly absorbed aqueous thiomalate was compared to the slowly absorbed oil repository thioglucose; the latter produced significantly less side effects and an appreciably higher percentage of improvement. Almost half (43%) of nonresponders on standard regimen had a satisfactory clinical response at higher dosage levels without increase in toxicity. Some of these findings vary so much with traditional beliefs and practices that the authors urge caution in their interpretation. But generally speaking these problems are technical and do not detract from the conviction that chrysotherapy is valuable and comparatively safe in the management of rheumatoid arthritis and that it deserves more widespread application in clinical practice.

Arthritis, Rheumatoid↗