Sattar Jabir Abood, Faiq Isho Gorial, Saad A. Hussain. Safety of boron supplements in rheumatoid arthritis patients maintained on etanercept treatment. Int J Comprehensive Pharmacy 2016; 3(2):1-5.
Abstract
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic chronic inflammatory disease of unknown etiology that primarily targets synovial tissues and affecting both articular and extra-articular tissues. Boron shows important role in the pathogenicity and prognosis of RA, where reduced dietary boron content has been associated with RA. The present study was designed to to evaluate the safety of boron supplements when used in pharmacological doses as adjuvant with etanercept in treatment of RA patients. A double blind randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial with 60 days’ treatment period was carried out during 8 months at Baghdad Teaching Hospital / (Medical City) Baghdad, Iraq. One hundred eleven patients maintained on Etanercept and other DMARDs with moderate severe active RA were selected. Eighty RA patients were randomized into 3 groups to receive either 220 mg/day calcium fructoborate (CFB), 55 mg/day sodium tetraborate (NTB) in capsule dosage form (equivalent to 6 mg elemental Boron), or placebo (specially prepared for this purpose) once daily. Only 72 patients completed the study. Blood was obtained from each patient before and after 60 days, and utilized for the measurement of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), hemoglobin (Hb), white blood cells (WBC) count and platelets count, hepatic and renal functions. The results showed that boron supplements have no negative impact of the evaluated markers, and they demonstrated protective effects in certain occasions. In conclusion, both NTB and CFB showed relatively similar hematological, hepatic and renal safety profile when used as adjuvant in RA patients, with few predominance for CFB in this regard.
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