Mycophenolate mofetil in patients with Crohn's disease

Objective: Intolerance to azathioprine is a rare but important problem in t reating chronically active Crohn's disease. We performed this study to eval uate mycophenolate mofetil as an alternative immunosuppressive therapy for patients with Crohn's disease who did not tolerate azathioprine, Methods: F our patients with highly active perianal Crohn's disease and two patients w ith chronically active, steroid-dependent Crohn's disease were included. Al l patients consumed 2 g/day of mycophenolate mofetil for a median of 8 mont hs (range, 6-12 months). Disease activity was measured by the Perianal Croh n's Disease Activity Index in patients with perianal disease and by the Cro hn's Disease Activity Index in patients with chronically active Crohn's dis ease. Results: Azathioprine-induced side effects disappeared after the drug was discontinued. All patients improved during treatment with mycophenolat e mofetil, as shown by a remarkable reduction in the respective clinical sc ores. Five patients showed no side effects during treatment with mycophenol ate mofetil, After 4 months' treatment one patient developed diarrhea that was probably not due to mycophenolate mofetil, Conclusion: Mycophenolate mo fetil could be an alternative therapy to azathioprine in patients with Croh n's disease. (C) 1998 by Am. Cell. of Gastroenterology.