Pediatr Gastroenterol Hepatol Nutr.  2013 Jun;16(2):65-70.

Monitoring and Safety of Azathioprine Therapy in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Pediatrics, Ilsan Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Goyang, Korea.
  • 2Department of Pediatrics, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. i101016@skku.edu

Abstract

Azathioprine is the most common drug used to maintain clinical remission in inflammatory bowel disease. This drug is also important as a steroid-sparing agent in steroid-dependent and chronically active inflammatory bowel disease. Nevertheless, many questions remain concerning the optimal treatment regimens of azathioprine. The dose of azathioprine has to be reduced or the therapy has to be discontinued frequently because of drug-induced toxicity. In this review, we discuss monitoring of thiopurines, adverse events, malignant complications and how to use azathioprine safely and usefully.

Keyword

Azathioprine; Inflammatory bowel diseases

MeSH Terms

Azathioprine
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
Azathioprine

Reference

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