DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF A GASTROPATHY INDEX FOR RANKING THE SAFETY OF NONSTEROIDAL ANTIINFLAMMATORY DRUGS IN THE ELDERLY

This study, conducted at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital, Department of Geriatric Medicine, was carried out using 2987 sets of admission d ata. The number of patients taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory dru gs was identified together with a suite of clinical factors used to in dicate the presence of gastrointestinal pathology. From this a gastrop athy index was developed to establish a rank order for the individual drugs. Ketoprofen, piroxicam and fenbufen were all significantly assoc iated with factors suggestive of gastropathy, whereas indomethacin, di clofenac and ibuprofen appeared relatively free of such association. N aproxen, azapropazone and mefenamic acid ranked in an intermediate cat egory. This non-invasive analysis of routinely acquired data provides a potentially useful discriminator between individual non-steroidal an ti-inflammatory drugs for this age group.