Maximum tolerable dose of cyclophosphamide and azathioprine in Pakistani patients with primary renal disease

ABSTRACT

Objective: The immunosuppressive regimens, at present, mainly rely on western guidelines that were derived from studies conducted in western populations. No such study exists for South Asian population, which is home to almost two billion people different in both genetics and environment from west. Locally derived thresholds for side effects markedly different from western figures may warrant re-adjustment of current local immunosuppressive regimens that are at present based largely on western guidelines. In order to define optimum dose for Cyclophosphamide [CYC] and Azathioprine [AZA] based immunosuppressive therapy, we conducted this study to find out maximum tolerable doses of azathioprine [AZA] and cyclophosphamide [CYC] beyond which neutropenia and thrombocytepenia are most likely to occur in patients with primary renal pathology