Increased Liver Enzymes

[JaimeM]

So I've been on Imuran for a month or so now.. (I'm also on Remicade) I've had my blood work every week. This week we found out my AST and ALT were elevated. They had my run a TMTP and thioprine levels I think. I won't know the results of these for a few days

Has anyone had increased liver enzymes and if you have what did they do about it?

 

[FrozenGirl]

Yep. My ALT was 150. I was on Remicade and methotrexate at the time. My GI watched it for a while because he wasn't 100% sure it was from the methotrexate but it kept going up so he concluded it was. I went off methotrexate for a month and then i asked if I could go back on a lower dose and he agreed.

If it was only 1 high result I wouldn't be too concerned. Do you know how high the ALT was? Normal is 50 but if you are only are 60 or 70 I wouldn't be worried just make sure you keep getting lab work. Sometimes it's just 1 wonky result and your actually fine.

 

[JaimeM]

Ok that's a relief.. I believe one was 70 and the other was like 55.. so not very high at all..

 

[FrozenGirl]

Yeah that not really too elevated. I wouldn't panic at all. If it keep happening and going up then it might be concerning but until you see a solid trend up I wouldn't get too worried. Like I said my GI just watched my numbers until I hit 150 then he said we need to do something. He didn't even mention my high numbers until they had been high for 3 months (testing once a month).

 

[JaimeM]

So they checked my imuran levels and apparently must have shown that it was causing the liver damage.. They reduced my dose of imuran from 200mg to 100mg.. I'm still feeling good. However, I have to start doing weekly blood work again ;| my poor veins. haha, between remicade and the weekly blood draws..

 

[FrozenGirl]

Oh that sucks. Good they found it and you are still doing okay though.
I feel your pain on the bloodwork. Weekly is so much of a pain, hope you have good veins.

 

[JaimeM]

My veins are pretty terrible.. My last Remicade infusion took 7 tries to get an IV. Unfortunately my ALT was 130 this week, they had reduced my dose by half last week.. I guess we will see where this goes.

 

[FrozenGirl]

Ugh that sucks. I feel for you. Hopefully the reduced dose will reduce your liver enzymes.

 

[Ally1234]

I know this is an old thread but hopefully some of you are still active. I had raised liver test a few weeks ago, it was just over 200 and has since dropped to 130, i am on azathioprine 175mg and as long as my levels continue to drop they aren't going to take me off it. My question is did anyone notice a difference in the way they felt when they had high results? I'm just asking because I had my high result of 200 on the Friday and I had actually sent myself home from work the day before because I felt really unwell. I am starting to feel unwell again and am wondering if it could be linked or if it's just another part of my crohns? I have my blood test Friday and I'm not sure whether to go tomorrow instead so I can get results before the weekend

 

[JaimeM]

I had a ton of pain in my liver area and was really fatigued with just a general ickiness. So yeah it could very well be. They halved my dose for a month and then slowly built it up. So I was at 200mg initially my LFT was high so they put it to 100 and I'm at 150 now. They checked my thiopurine level and saw that my liver wasn't processing it well, so they are going to keep me at 150 for now. As my LFTs have been good the last few weeks.