Azathioprine is essential following cyclosporine for patients with steroid-refractory ulcerative colitis

Figure 1 Clinical course of 29 patients up to 5 years after GI-CyA therapy. Patients with a CAI score reduction of ≥ 5 were considered “responders”. The term “no colectomy” includes all patients who were not treated surgically for up to 5 years. CAI: Clinical activity index.

Figure 2 Kaplan-Meier analyses of avoidance of colectomy versus time for responding patients with or without azathioprine treatment (overall, n = 15, with azathioprine, n = 8, and without azathioprine, n = 7, respectively). P = 0.006 vs no AZA treatment by the log-rank test. AZA: Azathioprine.