← Return to Anyone experience a rise in liver enzymes with imuran/azathiaprone?

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@slkanowitz

Autoimmune diseases are very common and often complex. Elevation of liver enzymes is a common side effect of Imuran, but also the AI hepatitis. The best way to assess disease vs medicine effect is to compare enzyme levels before treatment to levels after treatment. This can show a fluctuating baseline from the disease during diagnosis testing, the look at the levels a month or more after treatment started. It’s not easy as dates need to be accurate as to when drug was started. Labcorp results show a graph if you look at “trends “ on your Labcorp patient portal. Quest may have the same, i just don’t know.
The inflammation is microscopic and may not be severe enough to show up on imaging like CT scans. I hope that helps you and you feel better.

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Replies to "Autoimmune diseases are very common and often complex. Elevation of liver enzymes is a common side..."

Thanks, slkanowitz!
I really appreciate your comment!
Yes, this is the issue. Is it the disease or the Imuran.
My enzymes were rapidly trending downwards after three weeks on prednisone alone, but with the addition of 50 mg of Imuran for 5 weeks, they rose. I think I'll know at my follow-up appointment at the end of March whether my liver doesn't like the Imuran, given that they doubled the dose. This, I would think establishes a pretty clear link between Imuran and spiking enzymes. My doctor never mentioned a possible link, and I totally forgot to ask.
I'm hoping it was just a transient spike.