Tu1544 The Safety and Efficacy of Rapid Induction Therapy of Tacrolimus With Severe Ulcerative Colitis Refractory to Steroid Therapy

Abstract

Tacrolimus (FK506) is a new calcineurin inhibitor widely used in transplantation medicine. Previous report presented the first randomized controlled trial of FK506 in patients with refractory ulcerative colitis. And then they demonstrated dose dependent efficacy and safety of oral FK506 for remission-induction therapy of refractory UC and the optimal target range appears to be 10-15 ng/ml in terms of efficacy with two week therapy. However, we occasionally have the experience that severe UC did not improve without reaching the appropriate trough level by oral FK506 of the standard therapies (at an initial dose of 0.025 mg/kg twice daily).