Endoscopic study of the gastro-intestinal tolerance of glucamethacin.

A gastroscopic study was carried out in patients with rheumatic disorders to investigate the gastric tolerance of glucamethacin, a new, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent. The first stage was a double-blind crossover comparison of the effects of glucamethacin (420 mg/day) and indomethacin (100 mg/day), each given for 15 days in random order to 30 patients. In the second, open stage, 70 such patients, most of whom also had gastrointestinal pathology, received glucamethacin (420 mg/day) for 25 days. The results of endoscopic findings showed that significantly fewer (p less than 0.05) gastric lesions were produced after treatment with glucamethacin than after indomethacin. In the patients with gastro-duodenal pathology treated only with glucamethacin there was no change in endoscopy findings in 74% of the patients and only slight changes in the others.