PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ben Warner
AU  - Emma Johnston
AU  - Monica Arenas-Hernandez
AU  - Anthony Marinaki
AU  - Peter Irving
AU  - Jeremy Sanderson
TI  - A practical guide to thiopurine prescribing and monitoring in IBD
AID  - 10.1136/flgastro-2016-100738
DP  - 2016 Aug 29
TA  - Frontline Gastroenterology
PG  - flgastro-2016-100738
4099  - http://fg.bmj.com/content/early/2016/08/29/flgastro-2016-100738.short
4100  - http://fg.bmj.com/content/early/2016/08/29/flgastro-2016-100738.full
AB  - Thiopurines are often the mainstay of treatment for many patients with inflammatory bowel disease. As such, a general understanding of the evidence behind their use and of their metabolism is extremely useful in clinical practice. This review gives a practical overview of thiopurine metabolism, the importance of thiopurine S-methyltransferase testing prior to the start of therapy and the monitoring of thioguanine nucleotide levels while on treatment, guiding a personalised approach to optimising thiopurine therapy.