A COMPARISON OF CALCIUM ACETYLSALICYLATE (AS CALSAMATE) TO ACETYLSALICYLIC ACID

¹ From the Department of Physiology, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison, and the Lakeside Laboratories, Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

In man the rate of urinary excretion of salicylic acid is essentially the same for calsamate and acetylsalicylic acid, no matter whether the salicylates are given early or late after meals.

As determined by the dosages necessary to cause emesis in dogs and to produce gastric ulcers in rats, rabbits, and dogs, calsamate causes less irritation of the gastric mucosa than does acetylsalicylic acid.

Neither calsamate nor acetylsalicylic acid is shown to alter significantly urea clearances or plasma carbon dioxide combining power in dogs.

Calsamate is less toxic than acetylsalicylic acid for rats and rabbits, since both the acute tolerated dose and the minimum lethal doses are higher for calsamate than for acetylsalicylic acid.