Comparison of tolmetin kinetics in rheumatoid arthritis and matched healthy controls.

We could find no significant differences in the kinetics of tolmetin when comparing five rheumatoid arthritis patients with moderate disease activity with a carefully matched group of normal healthy volunteers. Further, there were no discernible clinically significant differences in the kinetics of tolmetin when comparing a single dose to one week of therapy. These results, although limited by the small number of subjects involved and the large interpatient variability, suggest that it may be possible to extrapolate pharmacokinetic data from normals to patients with moderately active disease.