Gómez-Piña JJ, Trujillo-Alonso J, Morales-Hernández AE

Language: English
References: 6
Page: 107-110
PDF size: 246.56 Kb.

ABSTRACT

Background: Sjogren’s syndrome is an autoimmune disease, which affects exocrine glands, presenting oral and ocular dryness, moreover, it’s considered a rheumatic disease, manifesting pain and swelling in joints. This disease is commonly treated with artificial tears, but can be prescribed some drugs, such as muscarinic agonists, ophthalmic cyclosporine, hydroxychloroquine, azathioprine, and methotrexate (arthralgias and cutaneous manifestations). Azathioprine is associated with several adverse events; myelosuppression, hepatotoxicity and tremors are the most harmful clinical outcomes. These adverse events depend on the duration of treatment, but some genetic conditions lead a faster develop of these events. The measure of thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) activity is recommended by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in patients with azathioprine treatment, although it is poorly accessible in most hospitals.
Clinical case: A 53-year-old female patient with azathioprine-induced myelosuppression after being treated a short period due to Sjogren’s syndrome. This is a common drug prescribed in several rheumatology diseases, and these clinical outcomes need to be taken into consideration.
Conclusions: Nowadays Sjogren’s disease is treated with some different drugs including azathioprine, although cytopenia or myelosuppression are the main severe adverse effects, literature reported a 15.2% of hepatotoxicity, and 9.1% of myelosuppression, of which 17.3% reported pancytopenia.

REFERENCES

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