Tetracycline & Bactrim

Dr. Schiano,

Good Morning! I'm still worried about my high liver enzymes, and doing research. It dawned on me, I was on a 10 day dosage of Bactrim back in March. Two days after finishing the Bactrim, is when I went for my 3 month blood test & those results were my first indication of high ALT 59. I then was put on Tetracycline in April, but wasn't able to finish the RX due to side effects. Could these be the possible cause of my high liver Enzymes still in 7/2012?  

[Thomas D Schiano, MD]

absolutely--both of these are well known to cause a drug-induced liver injury, especially bactrim.  This should be totally reversible with time.  infrequently an autoimmune hepatitis can be triggered so the duration of abnormal liver tests could be longer.

[Tam047]

Sorry, correct RX is Doxycycline Hyclate 100 mg, not tetracycline

[Thomas D Schiano, MD]

i think that things should normalize--I would see a hepatologist or gastroenterologist however.