Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of etoricoxib and meloxicam in the treatment of patients with acute gout. Methods A randomized,active comparator study was conducted at outpatients and inpatients in our hospital from January 2009 to July 2010.A total of 84patients aged (63.7± 11.0) years with an acute attack of gout were treated with etoricoxib 120 mg/d (n =48),or meloxicam 15 mg/d (n =36) for 7 d.The patient's assessment of joint pain (0- 4 point Likert scale) at drug treatment for 2-5 d was considered as the primary efficacy end point,4 h after firstly takiug the drug and 2-8 d after treatment as the secondary efficacy end point.The starting efficacy was determined until pain relieved by patient himself. The safety was assessed by adverse experiences and indexes including leucocyte, platelet,crcatinine, uric acid,alanine transaminase (ALT),aspartate transaminase (AST) and mean artery pressure(MAP). Results In 84 patients,3cases (8.3％) in meloxicam treatment and 15 cases (31.2％) in etoricoxib treatment (among which 13 cases finished treatment) discontinued therapy.The improvement scores of joint pain were (-0.41 ±0.35 vs.-0.19±0.30,P=0.005) at4 h after firstly taking the drug,(-1.66±0.58 vs. 1.38±0.44,P=0.018)at drug treatment for 2 -5 d,( - 1.83 ± 0.60 vs.- 1.85 ± 0.53,P=0.9) at 2 8 d after treatment,and (-2.64±0.45 vs. - 2.38±0.37,P=0.000) post-treatment higher than pre treatment.The starting time of pain relieving were (4.0 ± 4.6) h in etoricoxib treatment and (12.1±5.7) h in meloxicam treatment. The levels of leucocyte were decreased after treatment as compared with before treatment in both two drug treatments(P＜0.05),while no differences were found in platelet.creatinine,uric acid,ALT and AST.MAP after etoricoxib treatment was increased compared with pretreatment ( P ＜ 0.05 ). Drug related adverse experiences appeared in 15 cases (31.2 ％ ) in etoricoxib treatment and 12 cases(33.3 ％ ) in meloxicam treatment(P=1.000).The ratio of gastrointestinal tract-related adverse effects in meloxicam treatment was higher than in etoricoxib (22.2％ vs.6.2％,P＜ 0.05),while adverse effects on cardiovascular in etoricoxib treatment were comparable to that of meloxicam (16.7 ％ and 11.1 ％,P＞0.05). Conclusions Etoricoxib at a dose of 120 mg once daily may be more effective than meloxicam for acute gout in aspects of safety and tolerance.

Objective To study the effects of dihydroartemisinin and quinine on plasmodium falciparum gametocytes at early stage. Methods Eleven patients with falciparum malaria who had plasmodium falciparum gametocytes at early stage(PFGe) in bone marrow but no matured plasmodium falciparum gametocytes(PFGm) in bone marrow and peripheral blood were allocated to two groups.Group A(n=6) were administered orally with dihydroartemisinin at a total dosage of 480mg for 7 days and Group B(n=5) with quinine sulfate at a total dosage of 10?500 mg for 7 days.The number of gametocytes in bone marrow and peripheral blood was examined at regular time. Results PFGe in bone marrow disappeared in Group A on 10 th day after the first administration while existed in all the cases of Group B on 10 th day and still in 2 cases on 14 th day.The clearance time for peripheral PFGe was 4.8?0.9 days in Group A and 22.0?5.8 days in Group B. Conclusion Dihydroartemisinin can clear PFGe but quinine shows no this action.

A study was carried out in south of Vietnam 15 Patients with Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes and asexual parasites were distributed into groups A, B and C. Artesunate was given orally at a total dose of 600 mg for 5 days in group A, 200 mg for 2 days in group B and intravenously at a total dose of 360 mg for 5 days in group C respectively. Gametocytes count was done before medication and daily after medication. Meanwhile, Anopheles dirus as a vector was employed to study the infectivity of gametocyte, The result showed that the mean gametocyte clearance time in three groups were respectively 15.4?5.0, 20.6?4.8 and 20.3?4.0 days. The mosquitoes were not infected from the blood in 2, 5 and 5 of 5 patients respectively on days 7, 14 and 21 in group A; 1 and 5 of 5 patients on day 14 and 21 in group B; 2 of 5 patients and 3 of 3 patients on days 14 and 21 in group C. It indicates that artesunate has remarkable effect on Plasmodium falciparum gametocytemia and its infectivity to mosquitoes.