Minerva medica
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Diacereine (DAR) is a new anti-arthrosis drug with an unusual action mechanism. Once it was found that, unlike existing FANS, DAR has no effect on prostaglandin synthesis, it was thought interesting to assess its clinical tolerability on two groups of patients. The first was a group of high risk patients with arthrosis or arthritis. ⋯ The drug was administered orally in doses of 100 mg per diem for 10 days. On the basis of the results observed in this case series only it can be stated that the use of DAR on ascitic cirrhosis patients produces no alterations in kidney function and does not reduce the effectiveness of diuretic treatment. Indeed it may well be that DAR has a positive effect on diuresis, that increased in this series in line with earlier experimental results.