Penicillamine compared to previous chrysotherapy in rheumatoid arthritis.

Of 331 patients in our 3 penicillamine clinics, 312 had been taking chrysotherapy previously. In 232 patients, responses to both drugs could be determined: there was no difference in the response rate to penicillamine when patients in the largest clinic with good and those with poor responses to gold were compared. Adverse reactions to penicillamine were more frequent in patients who had reacted adversely to gold in 2 of the 3 clinics. Proteinuria tended to occur more frequently in patients who had had proteinuria when taking gold than in patients who had not had gold-induced proteinuria.