ABSTRACT
I. BACKGROUND Rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by a gradual accumulation of damage to joints. This damage includes erosion of bone and joint space narrowing resulting from loss of cartilage. The adjuvant-injected rat shares a number of symptomatic and pathological features with the human arthritis patient, including damage to bone and cartilage. A developmental nonsteroidal antiinflammmatory drug (NSAID) was compared to other NSAIDs and to aspirin in experiments in rats with established Freund's adjuvant arthritis. This experimental compound was found to arrest or retard the progression of disease to a greater degree than the other compounds in these experiments. In humans, early studies indicated that the compound was effective in relieving the signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and degenerative joint disease. These findings suggest that this compound could effectively retard the progression of joint disease associated with rheumatoid arthritis in humans.
