The Tuberculosis Research Committee, Ryoken, Japan, investigated the therapeutic effect of Rifampicin (RFP) on re-treatment cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. Patients who failed to convert to negative in spite of the long-term treatment with primary and secondary drugs and whose sputa were continuously positive for 3 months, were subjected to this study.
Cases were divided into the following two groups.
Group I: Patients who had been treated pre v iously with Ethambutol (EB). The previous regimen applied before this study was continued with the addition of RFP.
Group II: Patients who have not been treated with EB previously. Cases in this group were subdivided into the following two groups at random.
Group II A: Treated with RFP daily and EB d a ily.
Group II B: Treated with RFP twice weekly and EB daily.
The dose of RFP was 450 mg per day and that of EB was 750 mg per day.
Of 358 patients submitted to the study, 105 have been excluded from the analysis on account of pretreatment impertinent conditions or dropped-out, and the number of cases remained in each group was 121 in group I, 67 in group II A, and 65 in group II B. The results of treatment up to six months were analyzed in these patients.
The rate of sputum conversion was 57.3% in group I, 73.8% in group II A, and 79.4%in group II B at three months, 50.4%, 82.5% and 84.5%, respectively, at six months. It is noteworthy that over 80% of the re-treatment cases can be converted to negative after six months treatment with the combination of RFP and EB.
These patients treated with RFP showed no seri o us side effects, except gastrointestinal disturbances. In group I and II A which were treated with RFP daily, the incidence rate of gastrointestinal disturbances was higher than in group II B with twice weekly use of RFP.
It is interesting that the regimen with RFP twice weekly and EB daily showed ex c ellent therapeutic effect with less side effects.
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