THE 2ND COURSE OF GOLD

Objective. To determine the outcomes in patients who receive more than one course of intramuscular gold therapy. Methods. Gold clinic record s of all patients who had received more than one course of gold at the Arthritis Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia were reviewed to extrac t clinical and laboratory data. Results. Between 1949 and 1999, 1148 p atients received injectable gold in the gold clinic of the Arthritis C entre, Vancouver, British Columbia. Forty-two patients received 2 cour ses and 3 patients 3 courses of gold separated by intervals of greater than 8 months. Twenty-one patients were markedly improved when the fi rst course of gold was discontinued. Twenty of these 21 patients exper ienced a similar marked improvement from a 2nd course of gold. Three p atients who received 3 courses had marked improvement with each course . Only 1 patient who experienced marked improvement with the first cou rse of gold failed to respond to a 2nd course. Conclusion. In contrast to the published literature, our experience suggests that the respons e to the 2nd course of gold is similar to the response to the first in most patients with arthritis.