A four-year follow-up of patients with quiescent pulmonary tuberculosis at the end of a year of chemotherapy with twice-weekly isoniazid plus streptomycin or daily isoniazid plus PAS.

Ramakrishnan, C.V.; Devadatta, S.; Evans, C.; Wallace Fox; Menon, N.K.; Nazareth, O.; Radhakrishna, S.; Sambamoorthy, S.; Stott, H.; Tripathy, S.P.; Velu, S.

Tubercle; 1969; 50; 115-124.

This report describes the progress over a four-year period of follow-up of 119 patients who had bacteriologically quiescent pulmonary tuberculosis at the end of a year of chemotherapy with either a fully supervised twice-weekly regimen of isoniazid plus streptomycin (SHTW, 66 patients) or a standard self-administered daily regimen of isoniazid plus PAS (PH, 53 patients).(In the second year, that is, in the first year of the follow-up, half the patients, selected at random, received maintenance chemotherapy with isoniazid and the other half a placebo.)

          The condition of the patients in the SHTW and PH series was similar, both at the time of their initial admission to treatment and at the start of the period of follow-up.

          One patient (PH) died of tuberculosis in the fifteenth month, having had a bacteriological relapse in the fourteenth month, Nine others (five SHTW, four PH) died of non-tuberculous causes.

          On average, 42 cultures per patient were examined during the four-year period. A bacteriological relapse occurred in eight SHTW and eight PH patients; however, retreatment became necessary in only three (5%) SHTW and five (10%) PH patients, the others having had a spontaneous sputum conversion, Most of the relapses occurred with drug-sensitive cultures.

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