Abstract

PESTANA, Elena  and  LOPEZ, Carmen Esther. Mofetil micofenolato como alternativa de tratamiento para pacientes pediátricos con hepatitis autoinmune resistentes e intolerantes a esteroides y azatioprina. Gen [online]. 2008, vol.62, n.1, pp.42-43. ISSN 0016-3503.

Introdución And Objective: The initial treatment in pediatric patients remains as prednisone alone or in combination with azathioprine and the dose is diminished gradually between week 4 and 8 once improvement of aminotranferase is obtained, staying the patients with low doses of steroids necessary to maintain normal levels of aminotranferase. The mycophenolate mofetil is a therapeutic alternative in those patients who do not respond or are intolerants to azathioprine and steroids. The objective of the present essay is to evaluate the effectiveness of mycophenolate mofetil in pediatric patients with diagnosis of autoimmune hepatitis that were intolerant or did not respond to prednisone and azathioprine. Results: 6 patients with diagnosis of autoimmune hepatitis were included with age ranging from 7 to 15 years with an average of 11,5+2,5 years, with age at diagnosis between 5 and 10 years, 4 male and 2 female 4 of the patients presented elevation of AST between 62 y 258 with an average 211,5+ 96,21 and ALT 104 y 334 with average 144,17+ 85,29 previous indication of mycophenolate mofetil, receiving treatment with prednisone and azathioprine and 2 had normal aminotranferase but they required high doses of steroids without being able to reduce them because of its elevation. From the histological point of view 3 patients presented altered architecture, extensive portal and septal fibrosis, with tendency to form nodules, widened portal spaces, with inflammatory compound infiltration, 2 patients presented cirrhosis with slight activity and 1 patient presented giant cell hepatitis. All the patients received mycophenolate mofetil at the dose of 600 mgs/m2 corporal surface every 12 hours. Following the administration of mycophenolate mofetil the doses of prednisone could be reduced to 0.25 and 0.5 mgs/kg day with normalization of aminotranferase AST in average 52 + 29,33 and ALT 40,16+ 9,15, except in 1 patient in which aminotranferase diminished 2 times its value but without its normalization. Conclusion: The use of mycophenolate mofetil in pediatric patients with autoimmune hepatitis in combination with steroids is effective in the improvement of the biochemical parameters that determine liver inflammation and constitutes an alternative in these patients.