Serum gold concentrations during treatment with auranofin.

Serum gold concentrations were measured in rheumatoid arthritis patients during chronic treatment with the orally adsorbable gold compound auranofin. In agreement with data in the literature, the highest serum gold concentration was reached after 16 weeks of treatment with 6 mg auranofin daily. A striking finding in this study was that thereafter the serum gold concentrations did not appear to plateau but declined gradually. Statistically this resulted in a significantly lower concentration after one year as compared with week 16 (p less than 0.05, paired t-test). It is suggested that a shift from protein bound gold to cell-bound gold might be the explanation.