[Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with levamisole. Preliminary study of clinical and immunological results].

From September 1975 to September 1976, eleven patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis in whom gold salts were either inactive or contraindicated were treated with levamisole. Treatment was interrupted in one case because of an allergic rash and in one as a precaution. There was an improvement in six, taking the form of a decrease in clinical symptoms and signs and a slowing of sedimentation rate. Certain immunitary changes were seen, in the sense of a reinforcement of humoural and cellular immunity. Fear of sudden agranulocytosis should lead to caution in further clinical trials.