Abstract
The quantitative measurement of rheumatoid factor (RF) was made by laser nepherometry in order to examine the changes of RF in rheumatoid patients before and during antirheumatoid medication with auranofin, gold sodium thiomalate (GST) and CCA.
The patients were divided into 4 groups: 20 cases of auranofin group, 6 of GST group, 9 of CCA group, and 20 of control group. RF was measured with latex photometric immunoassay (Eiken Kagaku, LA-200) . Duration of observation were 41±25 weeks (mean±SD) on auranofin group, and 63±72 on control group. The RF rates of auranofin group and GST group were significantly improved with the results of 24.1±36. 1 (mean±SD) in auranofin group, 52.1±40.3 in GST group, in comparison with control group with the results of -2.4±36.1 (P<0.05, P<0.01) .
With these results, we concluded that quantitative measurement of RF is very useful for evaluating the efficiency of antirheumatic drugs, as it indicates the condition of rheumatoid arthritis.
