Evaluation of efficacy and safety of etoricoxib and meloxicam in the treatment of patients with acute gout / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of etoricoxib and meloxicam in the treatment of patients with acute gout. Methods A randomized,active comparator study was conducted at outpatients and inpatients in our hospital from January 2009 to July 2010.A total of 84patients aged (63.7± 11.0) years with an acute attack of gout were treated with etoricoxib 120 mg/d (n =48),or meloxicam 15 mg/d (n =36) for 7 d.The patient's assessment of joint pain (0- 4 point Likert scale) at drug treatment for 2-5 d was considered as the primary efficacy end point,4 h after firstly takiug the drug and 2-8 d after treatment as the secondary efficacy end point.The starting efficacy was determined until pain relieved by patient himself. The safety was assessed by adverse experiences and indexes including leucocyte, platelet,crcatinine, uric acid,alanine transaminase (ALT),aspartate transaminase (AST) and mean artery pressure(MAP). Results In 84 patients,3cases (8.3％) in meloxicam treatment and 15 cases (31.2％) in etoricoxib treatment (among which 13 cases finished treatment) discontinued therapy.The improvement scores of joint pain were (-0.41 ±0.35 vs.-0.19±0.30,P=0.005) at4 h after firstly taking the drug,(-1.66±0.58 vs. 1.38±0.44,P=0.018)at drug treatment for 2 -5 d,( - 1.83 ± 0.60 vs.- 1.85 ± 0.53,P=0.9) at 2 8 d after treatment,and (-2.64±0.45 vs. - 2.38±0.37,P=0.000) post-treatment higher than pre treatment.The starting time of pain relieving were (4.0 ± 4.6) h in etoricoxib treatment and (12.1±5.7) h in meloxicam treatment. The levels of leucocyte were decreased after treatment as compared with before treatment in both two drug treatments(P＜0.05),while no differences were found in platelet.creatinine,uric acid,ALT and AST.MAP after etoricoxib treatment was increased compared with pretreatment ( P ＜ 0.05 ). Drug related adverse experiences appeared in 15 cases (31.2 ％ ) in etoricoxib treatment and 12 cases(33.3 ％ ) in meloxicam treatment(P=1.000).The ratio of gastrointestinal tract-related adverse effects in meloxicam treatment was higher than in etoricoxib (22.2％ vs.6.2％,P＜ 0.05),while adverse effects on cardiovascular in etoricoxib treatment were comparable to that of meloxicam (16.7 ％ and 11.1 ％,P＞0.05). Conclusions Etoricoxib at a dose of 120 mg once daily may be more effective than meloxicam for acute gout in aspects of safety and tolerance.