374 retreatment cases with positive culture and previously treated with neither ethambutol (EB) nor ethionamide (1321 TH) were allocated to the following three regimens at random:
(1) 1321TH0.5g, daily+EB1.0g, daily.
(2) 1321TH0.5g, daily+Rifampicin (RFP) 0.45g, daily.
(3) EB1.0g, daily+RFP0.45g, daily.
168 of 374 cases were excluded due to various reasons and 206 cases ((1) 64, (2) 66, (3) 76) were remained for analysis of the clinical results.
The rates of suputum conversion (moving average) at six months were 84.7% in group (1), 86.2% in group (2) and 96.2% in group (3).
The rate for far advanced cases was 75.5% in group (1), 83.9% in group (2) and 92.2% in group (3) respectively.
It seems that the ranking of clinical efficacy among RFP, EB and 1321 TH is concludes as follows:
RFP>EB>TH
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