Figure 4.

Prostaglandin E-M (PGE-M) in the urine of patient #3 during meloxicam treatment. The urinary PG profile was determined prior to and after 8 weeks of treatment with the NSAID meloxicam at 0.25 mg/kg oral suspension per day. Treatment cycles were repeated four times prospectively according to a predefined protocol. Therapy cycles were separated by an 8-week treatment pause. The levels of PGs and their metabolites were determined in 24-hour urine samples by capillary gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (p calculated by Mann Whitney's exact U-test). A final PGE-M analysis was done 8 weeks after discontinuation of the last meloxicam cycle (treatment 5, unconnected X). The indicates the mean plus standard deviation of the different sample sets.