Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
5 years ago

The adverse effect profile of oral azathioprine in pediatric atopic dermatitis, and recommendations for monitoring

Azathioprine is efficacious in the treatment of severe childhood atopic dermatitis; however, robust data on adverse effects in this population are lacking. Objective We sought to assess adverse effects of azathioprine treatment in a pediatric atopic dermatitis cohort, and make recommendations for monitoring based on these data. Methods Blood test results for all 82 children prescribed oral azathioprine for atopic dermatitis in our department between 2010 and 2012 were collated prospectively, and clinical notes were reviewed retrospectively. Results Mean age at commencing azathioprine was 8.3 years (SEM 0.4). Mean maximum doses were 2.4 mg/kg (SEM 0.1) and 1.5 mg/kg (SEM 0.1) for normal and reduced serum thiopurine-S-methyltransferase levels, respectively. Adverse effects on blood indices occurred in 34 of 82 patients (41%), with pronounced effects in 18 of 82 (22%) after a median time of 0.4 years. Two patients stopped therapy as a result of abnormal blood indices. Clinical adverse effects occurred in 16 of 82 (20%), two resulting in cessation of therapy. Incidence of adverse effects was unaffected by age, sex, thiopurine-S-methyltransferase level, and drug dose on multivariate regression. Limitations Comparison with other studies is limited by varying definitions of adverse effects. Conclusion Oral azathioprine was associated with few pronounced adverse effects for the duration of use and dosage in this cohort. Recommendations for monitoring are made.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S0190962214019057

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.