OBJECTIVE To evaluate the relationship between thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) activity and the safety and efficacy of azathioprine sodium in the treatment of pemphigus vulgaris. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Referral university hospital for autoimmune blistering diseases. PARTICIPANTS One hundred thirty-nine patients with pemphigus vulgaris treated with azathioprine. Interven...

BACKGROUND In patients treated with azathioprine, deficient thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) activity has been associated with haematologic toxicity. OBJECTIVES To determine how many Saskatchewan rheumatologists routinely pre-screen TPMT activity before prescribing azathioprine. Further, to retrospectively review TPMT activity levels from pre-screening in one patient cohort. METHODS All ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to compare azathioprine versus mesalazine tablets for the prevention of clinical recurrence in patients with postoperative Crohn's disease (CD) with moderate or severe endoscopic recurrence. METHODS This was a 1 year, double-blind, double-dummy, randomised study which took place in 21 gastroenterology centres in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany and Israe...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Immunomodulator therapy is effective for patients with Crohn's disease (CD) but has not been shown to affect disease progression, presumably because it is given too late after diagnosis. We compared the efficacy of early treatment (within 6 months after diagnosis) with azathioprine versus conventional management of patients at high risk for disabling disease. METHODS We perf...

A retrospective review of the literature has been carried out to determine laboratory abnormalities occurring in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with azathioprine, in order to establish a profile for this agent in the treatment of this disease. A total of 542 patients in 24 studies, reported in the literature, were given a range of doses of azathioprine for up to four years. Fif...

A controlled trial in 20 adult patients with the nephrotic syndrome due to proliferative glomerulonephritis compared the effects of consecutive eight-week courses of treatment with prednisolone in conventional dosage and a low-dose azathioprine-prednisolone combination. Though the azathioprine regimen avoided serious toxicity and produced a statistically significant improvement in creatinine cl...

3 Rivlin RS, Young EA, eds. Symposium on evidence relating selected vitamins and minerals to health and disease in the elderly population in the United States.competence of the elderly. Effect of short term nutritional supplementation on cell-mediated immunity and lymphocyte subsets. Fast atrial fibrillation induced by treatment of psoriasis with azathioprine We describe a patient with psoriasi...

Azathioprine, which is a derivative of 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP), is considered an effective immunosuppressive treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, particularly in patients with steroid resistant disease. For example, in the course of 1 year, 50% of patients with Crohn’s disease will require steroids for its treatment; of these 50% will either be steroid resistant or steroid dependent, and th...