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FRIDAY, Nov. 9 (HealthDay News) -- A drug called rilonacept (IL-1 Trap) may reduce disease activity and pain in patients with chronic active gout.
That's according to a non-randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled study of 10 patients, average age 62, who had gout for an average of 13 years.
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The study was led by Dr. Robert Terkeltaub of the VA Medical Center and University of California, San Diego.
Gout is a painful and potentially disabling form of arthritis. Initial symptoms usually consist of painful swelling in single joints, especially the big toe.
Rilonacept -- a new drug being tested in the treatment of inflammatory conditions -- prevents a protein called interleukin-1 from attaching to cell surface receptors and causing disease flare-up.
The patients in the study received twice-weekly injections of a placebo, followed by six weekly injections of rilonacept. In the second through eighth week of treatment, 70 percent of the patients had at least a 50 percent improvement in pain, and 60 percent of the patients had at least a 75 percent improvement in pain. There was no improvement in pain when the patients received the placebo.
By the eighth week of treatment, there was a 59 percent decrease in inflammation levels.
The study was to presented Nov. 9 at the American College of Rheumatology meeting in Boston.
More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about gout.
-- Robert Preidt
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