Table II.

Case series and reports of oral antibacterial treatment for primary sclerosing cholangitis.

					Change post-therapy
Drug	Year	n	Antibiotic dose	Months of therapy	ALK	AST	ALT
Drug Tetracycline [51]**	1959	5	500 mg/day	1–10	−45%	−60%	−45%
Tetracycline []55†	1965	5	500 mg/day	48	−21%	NA	NA
Metronidazole [62]	1983	1	800 mg/day	0.25	NA‡‡	NA‡‡	NA‡‡
Sulfasalazine (+UDCA) []56††	1998	2‡	NA	39	−57%	−62%	−82%
Vancomycin [57]	1998	3‡	375–1000 mg/day	9	NA	NA	−89%
Sulfasalazine (+UDCA) [58]	2002	1	50 mg/kg/day	37	NA	NA	−92%
Sulfasalazine [59]	2006	1	2–4.5 g/day	24	−74%	NA	−84%
Azithromycin (+UDCA) [60]	2007	1	500 mg/day qod	5	−72%	−31%	−33%
Vancomycin [61]	2008	14‡	50 mg/kg/day	54 ± 43	NA	NA	−78%

Abbreviations: ALK = alkaline phosphatase, AST = aspartate aminotransferase; ALT = alanine aminotransferase, GGT = γ-glutamyl transpeptidase; tid = three times a day; qid = four times a day; UDCA = ursodeoxycholic acid.

Months of treatment and follow-up are absolute unless otherwise indicated.

^*Reflects low-dose vancomycin group only; values for high-dose vancomycin were: −40%, −21%, and −0.03 units, respectively.

^**Includes one patient who also received prednisone but whose data were not separable from the other four patients.

^†Does not include two patients who received prednisone.

^††Does not include a third patient who also received prednisolone and mizoribine.

^‡Pediatric patients.

^‡‡Original case report indicates dramatic improvement in patient’s condition, including defervescence, return of appetite, reduction of serum bilirubin, and after 2 weeks, becoming completely asymptomatic. Six months later, patient again worsened clinically, but again responded to metronidazole.