Efficacy and safety of Menatetrenone-4 postmenopausal Thai women.

Clinical and comparative study of the efficacy and adverse events of Menatetrenone-4. The control group (n=40) received elemental calcium carbonate 800 mg/day and the Menatetrenone-4 treated group received elemental calcium carbonate 800 mg/day plus vitamin K2 45 mg/day (n=43). The vitamin K2 treated group showed a marked decrease of undercarboxylated osteocalcin at 2 weeks, six months (51.52% p=0.0001) and twelve months (87.26% p=0.0001) compared to the calcium treated group. At the end of the sixth and twelve months both groups did not increase bone mass of the hip but the vitamin K2 treated group increased 0.6 per cent of bone mass of the lumbar spine and decreased bone resorption 65.42 per cent (p=0.0001) compared to the calcium treated group. The calcium treated group was switched to the vitamin K2 treated group at the end of six months and showed a decrease of the level of undercarboxylated osteocalcin the same as the former vitamin K2 treated group. The adverse events were 2 cases of mild skin rash which subsided after cessation of medication.

Topical analgesics for knee arthrosis: a parallel study of ketoprofen gel and diclofenac emulgel.

The clinical efficacy of the two topical analgesics, ketoprofen hydroalcoholic gel (Fastum gel) and diclofenac emulgel, for osteoarthritis of the knee was studied. There were 85 patients who underwent the trial. They were randomly allocated into 2 groups, the diclofenac group, 42 patients (4 males and 38 females) receiving the diclofenac emulgel at the painfull site four times a day for 4 weeks, and the ketoprofen group, 43 patients (9 males and 34 females) receiving the ketoprofen hydroalcoholic gel four times a day for 4 weeks at the painful knee. Golberg's knee scoring was used to evaluate the patients before the trial, at the end of the first, second and fourth weeks. The ketoprofen group had poorer a score before the trial, however, both groups had improvement in their knee functions, knee score and pain. There was no significant difference between the groups at the end of the study. There was no serious side effect in both groups. Ketoprofen hydroalcoholic gel gave persuasive results in the treatment of knee arthrosis stage I and II.