To evaluate the effect of 6-month short term antituberculosis chemotherapy with INH, Rifampin, Ethambutol, and Pyrazinamide(2HREZ/4HRE) in the patients with pulmonary and/or extrapulmonary tuberculosis, the authors prescribed 2HREZ/4HRE regimen in 79 tuberculosis patients for 6 months with measuring the sputum staining for AFB, chest X-ray findings, recurrence rates and possible side reactions of the treatment.
The results were as follows；
1. Pulmonary Tuberculosis
1) Among the 56 pulmonary tuberculosis patients who had taken 2HREZ/4HRE regimen, 32 patients showed initial positivity in sputum AFB smear stain(57.2％).
Negative conversion occurred usually within 2 months after initiation of chemotherapy and the mean period of negative conversion was 1.4 months.
2) Among the 56 pulmonary tuberculosis patients, chest X-ray finding changed in 41 patients(37.21％). From these 41 patients 39 patients showed continuous improvements in chest X-ray finding, though 3 patients showed initial aggravation in spite of continuous medication. The remainder 2 cases aggravated due to the failure of treatment.
3) Treatment failure occurred in 2 patients(3.57％) during the chemotherapy among 56 patients of pulmonary tuberculosis and they were infected with secondary drug-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis.
2. Extrapulmonary tuberculosis
Among 8 patients with tuberculous pleurisy and 15 patients with superficial tuberculous lymphadenitis, there were no evidence of treatment failure after completion of antituberculosis chemotherapy for 6 months with 2HREZ/4HRE regimen.
3. Follow-up study was performed from 6 months to 50 months after completion of antituberculosis chemotherapy and the relapse was not noted in both pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis patients group during this period.
4. Serum AST/ALT elevated in 9 patients(11.4％) during the treatment and this occurred usually within 3 months after the initiation of antituberculosis chemotherapy.
However treatment interruption occurred in 2 patients(2.5％) due to the development of hepatitis-one due to drug-induced hapatitis and the other due to type B viral hepatitis.
In conclusion, we could find this 2HREZ/4HRE 6-month short-term antituberculouis regimen is effective and could be recommanded as a promising regimen for the treatment of tuberculos.
|