Skip Navigation


Rheumatology Advance Access originally published online on January 25, 2007
Rheumatology 2007 46(5):727-729; doi:10.1093/rheumatology/kel427
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow CME/CE:
Take the course for this article:
 Rheumatology First Quarter 2007 Quiz
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
46/5/727    most recent
kel427v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (2)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Payne, K.
Right arrow Articles by Ollier, W. E. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Payne, K.
Right arrow Articles by Ollier, W. E. R.
Related Collections
Right arrow Immunogenetics
Right arrow Rehabilitation
Right arrow Rheumatoid Arthritis
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

EDITORIALS

TPMT testing in rheumatology: any better than routine monitoring?

K. Payne1,2, W. Newman2,5, E. Fargher1,2, K. Tricker1,2, I. N. Bruce3,6 and W. E. R. Ollier4

1Nowgen, The North West Genetics Knowledge Park, 2Academic Unit of Medical Genetics, 3arc Epidemiology Unit, 4Centre for Integrated Genomic Medical Research, The University of Manchester, 5Department of Medical Genetics and 6Rheumatism Research Centre, Central Manchester and Manchester Childrens’ University Hospitals NHS Trust, UK

Correspondence to: Dr Katherine Payne. E-mail: Katherine.payne@manchester.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Azathioprine has been available as an immunosuppressive agent for over 40 yrs and is used widely in the management of rheumatological and other diseases [1]. In 2004, nearly 0.6 million prescriptions for azathioprine were dispensed in the community in England [2]. Azathioprine is an effective drug but there are concerns about the development of major adverse drug reactions. The past decade has seen a significant change in azathioprine prescribing practice in the UK following the introduction of thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) enzyme testing. Azathioprine dose selection based on TPMT enzyme testing to minimize the risk of neutropenia, offers the prospect of safer, more effective treatment.

Azathioprine is metabolized to its active metabolite by a series of enzyme steps, including TPMT. TPMT enzyme activity is highly variable: 90% of individuals have high/normal activity, 10% have intermediate activity and 0.3% low/absent activity [3]. The TPMT gene variant . . . [Full Text of this Article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Rheumatology (Oxford)Home page
S. L. Hider, I. N. Bruce, and W. Thomson
The pharmacogenetics of methotrexate
Rheumatology, October 1, 2007; 46(10): 1520 - 1524.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]