There is no doubt that the outlook for the patient with ulcerative colitis is better than it was 50 years ago when sulphasalazine was first introduced.' Much of the decreased mortality can be attributed to corticosteroids first shown to be effective in ulcerative colitis in 1952. The next milestone was widespread prescription of sulphasalazine, once it had been clearly established that it prolo...

Forty five patients with acute ulcerative colitis were randomly allocated to receive (a) sulphasalazine, (b) levamisole, or (c) a combination of sulphasalazine and levamisole. Each group contained 15 patients. The ulcerative colitis activity index (UCAI), the remission and relapse rates were compared at three monthly intervals for one year. The UCAI fell in each group. Detailed analysis of all ...

There is no doubt that the outlook for the patient with ulcerative colitis is better than it was 50 years ago when sulphasalazine was first introduced.' Much of the decreased mortality can be attributed to corticosteroids first shown to be effective in ulcerative colitis in 1952. The next milestone was widespread prescription of sulphasalazine, once it had been clearly established that it prolo...

Interleukin 1 (IL-1), IL-6, and tumour necrosis factor (TNF) alpha are pleiotropic cytokines produced predominantly by macrophages which have been implicated in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Sulphasalazine has been shown to have disease modifying properties and to inhibit the production of cytokines in vitro. To evaluate the effect of sulphasalazine on cytokine production in vi...

Sulphasalazine has been shown to have an effect in patients with spondyloarthropathies, but the clinical indication for its use is controversial and its long term effect has not yet been evaluated. Treatment with sulphasalazine was analysed retrospectively in a group of 372 patients with a wide range of spondyloarthropathies to determine subsets of patients showing differential effects of the d...