PROLONGED USE OF A SULFONAMIDE COMPOUND IN PREVENTION OF RHEUMATIC RECRUDESCENCES IN CHILDREN: AN EVALUATION BASED ON A FOUR YEAR STUDY ON SIXTY-FOUR CHILDREN

Early attempts by us to use sulfanilamide as a prophylactic agent in rheumatic fever were discontinued because of the fear of provoking toxic manifestations of this then new drug. The encouraging results obtained by Coburn and Moore1 and Thomas and France,2 however, prompted us to resume this study. Our special purpose was to follow the course of the disease in a group of patients made up entirely of children wherein the control and the sulfanilamide-treated subjects were as nearly as possible comparable and yet under more or less uncontrolled conditions which closely approximated those encountered in the private practice of medicine. Although a relatively large number of patients were observed by Coburn and Moore,3 comparatively few children were in the control series; Thomas, France and Reichsman4 used older subjects almost entirely. The recent report of Stowell and Button5 concerning a fatal granulopenia in a patient