Hi, I had scheduled my visit with my derm and after he was checking my results, he finally decided that i should continue the course due to my hyperpigmentation. I was still put on 40mg/day for another two months, but this time the derm said that since I have been doing my blood tests monthly for the past 4 months and everything was perfect, I wouldn't need to do them anymore.
This kind of made me unsure, has anyone else experienced with this? My diet is very healthy and all of that, but really, not blood tests from now on?
There has been much debate as to whether liver function tests and lipids should be monitored while on therapy. Elevations in these tests occur in almost all patients and rapidly return to pretreatment levels after therapy has been stopped. It is, however, essential to carry out these tests before starting therapy. Published evidence suggests that the laboratory tests need not be repeated except in groups at risk, such as diabetics and patients with known familial hypertriglyceridaemia. However, the EU directive is prescriptive in suggesting these investigations should be preformed at baseline, 1 month into therapy and 3 monthly throughout treatment. Amichai et al. have published an excellent overview on the many side effects of oral isotretinoin.