Abstract
From January 1991 to December 1992, 419 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis were initially treated at Fukujuji Hospital. Among them, 190 patients, who were younger than 80 years old and had pulmonary tuberculosis with cavities or infiltration of extension 2 or 3, and/or were sputum-smear positive, had been treated by 6-month short course regimen containing pyrazinamide, 2HRS (E) Z/4HRE. And were eligible for the evaluation of the clinical usefulness of pyrazinamide-containing regimen for the initial treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. The dose of pyrazinamide was 1.2g per day irrespective of body weight. The patients of this treatment group consisted of 151 males and 39 females, and mean age of the males was 45.3 and that of the females was 43.8 years old. At the start of the treatment, 74% of the cases were smear positive, 70% were cavitary, and 6 cases each showed primary resistance to isoniazid and to streptomycin, respectively, and only one case showed resistance to both of isoniazid and streptomycin. There was no primary resistant case to either rifampicin or ethambutol.
