Nabumetone induces less gastrointestinal mucosal changes than diclofenac retard.

The aim of the study was to compare the efficacy and the effects on the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of nabumetone and diclofenac retard in patients with osteoarthritis (OA). An open, multicentre, randomised, comparative, endoscopy-blind parallel group study included 201 patients with nabumetone and 193 patients with diclofenac retard suffering from moderate to severe OA of the knee or hip joint. Twelve clinical efficacy variables were assessed and a portion of the population underwent gastroduodenoscopy. All patients exhibited significant improvement in pain severity and pain relief (p < 0.001 and p < 0.0001, respectively) but there were no differences between the groups for all the efficacy variables. Eleven per cent of patients on nabumetone and 19% on diclofenac experienced GIT side-effects. Sixty-nine patients with nabumetone and 61 with diclofenac underwent gastroduodenoscopy. The differences in the mucosal grade for the oesophagus, stomach and duodenum at baseline were not significant. In the oesophagus there were significantly less changes after treatment with nabumetone (p = 0.007) than with diclofenac; there were similar findings in the stomach (p < 0.001) but the difference in the duodenum was not significant. This study indicates that nabumetone and diclofenac retard have similar efficacy in the treatment of OA, but nabumetone has significantly fewer GIT side-effects.

Antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) in autoimmune diseases: primary Sjögren's syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune thyroid diseases.

The aetiology of autoimmune diseases remains unknown. The relationship between virus, and more recently retrovirus, has been suggested with this group of diseases. Immunoblotting is a useful method for determining the presence of proteins coded by different retrovirus genes. Since the prevalence of these types of proteins in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and autoimmune thyroid diseases has not been fully established, the aim of this work was to determine the prevalence of antibodies to immunodeficiency human virus type 1 (HIV-1) proteins in these diseases and their possible relationship with the presence of anti-nuclear, anti-DNA, anti-SSA (Ro) and anti-SSB (La) autoantibodies. Antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) were studied in a group of 341 patients with autoimmune diseases (77 SS, 98 SLE, 75 RA, 91 autoimmune thyroid diseases) and 126 blood donors as a control group. A Western blot was used to detect antibodies to HIV-1, and a double polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using nested primers in the gag and pol gene of HIV-1. Antinuclear antibodies, anti-DNA, anti-SSA (Ro) and anti-SSB (La) were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. At least one band was shown on immunoblotting in 26% of patients with autoimmune diseases and 35% of controls. The presence of antibodies to p55 or p68 proteins in patients with SS or SLE proved to be the only statistically significant difference between the other autoimmune diseases studied and the control group. These antibodies were not associated with autoantibodies ANA, DNA, SSA (Ro) or SSB (La).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)