Prolonged Use of a Sulfonamide Compound in Prevention of Rheumatic Recrudescences in 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 Moore¹and Thomas and France,²however, 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,³comparatively few children were in the control series; Thomas, France and Reichsman⁴used older subjects almost entirely. The recent report of Stowell and Button⁵concerning a fatal granulopenia in a patient