Minocycline and elevated liver enzymes

[Gair]

Hi everyone,

A couple weeks ago my dermatologist diagnosed me with rosacea--and that was a surprise to me. He prescribed Metrogel (once a day) and 100 mg of Minocycline once a day. He recommends taking 4 times the daily dose of probiotics with the Minocycline. He also provided a sheet of the adverse effects of Minocycline, one of which is elevated liver enzymes. Since I already have occasional trouble with elevated liver enzymes this concerned me and I haven't taken any of them yet. I had to get blood work done before taking the Minocycline and it already shows an elevated GGT level so I'm even less inclined to take them--at least until I talk to the gastroenterologist. Usually we can't any reason for the elevated levels and they eventually go away on their own.

Have any of you ever experienced elevated liver enzymes after taking doxycycloine or any of the tetracycline derivatives like Minocycline? Did going off the antibiotic make the levels go back to normal?

Thanks,
Gair

[Aurelia]

Hi Gair,

Have any of you ever experienced elevated liver enzymes after taking doxycycloine or any of the tetracycline derivatives like Minocycline?

No, never from Doxycycline or Minocycline, but also never from anything else, so perhaps my liver is just quite well-behaved?

Usually we can't any reason for the elevated levels and they eventually go away on their own.

Has your doctor given you any hints about what might be responsible, or is that not considered unless it stays elevated for a while? Anyway, very best of luck in getting this business sorted. It sounds very worrying.

Kind regards,

Aurelia

[Gair]

Hi Aurelia,

The first time it happened we put it down to a change in blood pressure medicine. But, I'd also just had my gallbladder out on an emergency basis so there was some thought it might have been the anesthesia. I changed the blood pressure meds and the elevated liver enzymes went away. Six weeks after the gallbladder came out I had a total abdominal hysterectomy (that was a fun year!) but liver enzymes remained normal so we kind of ruled out anesthesia as the culprit.

A couple years later the elevated enzymes came back. We did all kinds of tests and basically we couldn't figure out what might be causing it other than elevated cholesterol. I've been taking Zetia and Lipitor with no problems and the cholesterol has been fine and so were the liver enzymes.

I've contacted my gastroenterologist; he initially said get a baseline liver enzyme test and then get them once a month and then every three months. I told the nurse I'd already had a baseline and the GGT was 128 (shouldn't be higher than 60) and now I'm waiting to hear what he thinks. In the meantime I'm just using the Metrogel.

Thanks for letting me know that you didn't have any problems; I appreciate it.

Gair

[Aurelia]

How awful for you, and of course for your loved ones. I hope you never go through anything like that again.

Please keep us posted on how you get on, thanks.

Kind regards,

Aurelia