Thiopurines and inflammatory bowel disease: Current evidence and a historical perspective

Table 1 Current evidence and dosing for thiopurines in inflammatory bowel disease

Thiopurine indication	Evidence and azathioprine dose
Crohn’s disease induction	Monotherapy, less robust evidence: 1.5-2.5 mg/kg/d[11-17]Combination therapy with infliximab, more robust evidence: 2.5 mg/kg/d[18,19]
Crohn’s disease maintenance	Monotherapy, more robust evidence: 1.5-2.5 mg/kg/d[6,13,14,22-25]
Postoperative maintenance in Crohn’s disease	Monotherapy, more robust evidence: 2-2.5 mg/kg/d[5,28-36]
Ulcerative colitis induction	Monotherapy, less robust evidence: 1.5-2.5 mg/kg/d[16,38-42]Combination therapy with infliximab, more robust evidence: 2.5 mg/kg/d[47]
Ulcerative colitis maintenance	Monotherapy, less robust evidence: 2-2.5 mg/kg/d[2,16,40,42,50]
Chemoprevention	Monotherapy, less robust evidence: dose not established[3,4,59,74-76]
Preventing immunogenicity to anti-TNF	Combination therapy with anti-TNF, less robust evidence: dose not established[47,117-125]

TNF: Tumor necrosis factor.