Skip to main content
Bulletin of the World Health Organization logoLink to Bulletin of the World Health Organization
. 1961;25(3):409–429.

Progress in the second year of patients with quiescent pulmonary tuberculosis after a year of domiciliary chemotherapy, and influence of further chemotherapy on the relapse rate*

S Velu, R H Andrews, J H Angel, S Devadatta, Wallace Fox, P R J Gangadharam, A S L Narayana, C V Ramakrishnan, J B Selkon, P R Somasundaram
PMCID: PMC2555578  PMID: 13925282

Abstract

This study from the Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre, Madras, summarizes the progress during the second year of those patients in a 1-year comparison of four domiciliary chemotherapeutic regimens (isoniazid plus PAS and three regimens of isoniazid alone) whose pulmonary tuberculosis had attained bacteriological quiescence at the end of the year of chemotherapy. During the second year, about half of the patients received further chemotherapy, with isoniazid alone, and the remainder received a placebo, calcium gluconate. The main objects of the study were to determine the influence on the progress during the second year of (a) a second year of chemotherapy with isoniazid alone, (b) residual cavitation at the end of the first year, and (c) the chemotherapeutic regimen received during the first year, and to compare the results with those obtained in an earlier study by the Centre of the progress during the second year of patients with quiescent pulmonary tuberculosis after a year's chemotherapy with isoniazid plus PAS at home or in sanatorium.

The results of the present study, which was planned on the same lines as the earlier one, showed that relapse in the second year was unrelated to the chemotherapeutic regimen received in the first year, and it was therefore permissible to amalgamate the findings in the two studies. The amalgamated results showed that the relapse rate in the second year was low (5.9%) and that a second year of treatment with isoniazid alone was of definite value for the patients with no residual cavitation at the end of the first year, but had no effect on the relapse rate of those with residual cavitation. The combined data from the two studies have thus clarified the position with regard to the effectiveness of isoniazid in preventing bacteriological relapse in patients without residual cavitation, slight evidence of which was apparent in the earlier study.

Full text

PDF
410

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. DEVADATTA S., ANDREWS R. H., ANGEL J. H., BHATIA A. L., FOX W., JANARDHANAM B., RADHAKRISHNA S., RAMAKRISHNAN C. V., SUBBAIAH T. V., VELU S. Progress in the second and third years of patients with quiescent pulmonary tuberculosis after a year of chemotherapy at home or in sanatorium, and influence of further chemotherapy on the relapse rate. Bull World Health Organ. 1961;24:149–175. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. DEVADATTA S., GANGADHARAM P. R., ANDREWS R. H., FOX W., RAMAKRISHNAN C. V., SELKON J. B., VELU S. Peripheral neuritis due to isoniazid. Bull World Health Organ. 1960;23:587–598. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. DOONEIEF A. S., HITE K. E., BLOCH R. G. Indefinitely prolonged chemotherapy for tuberculosis; an appeal. AMA Arch Intern Med. 1955 Oct;96(4):470–477. doi: 10.1001/archinte.1955.00250150044004. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. GANGADHARAM P. R., MITCHISON D. A., SUBBAIAH T. V., SHORT E. I. [The detection of isoniazid in urine]. Tubercle. 1958 Aug;39(4):191–200. doi: 10.1016/s0041-3879(58)80067-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. RALEIGH J. W. The late results of prolonged multiple-drug therapy for pulmonary tuberculosis. Am Rev Tuberc. 1957 Oct;76(4):540–558. doi: 10.1164/artpd.1957.76.4.540. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. ROSS J. D., HORNE N. W., GRANT I. W., CROFTON J. W. Hospital treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis; a follow-up study of patients admitted to Edinburgh hospitals in 1953. Br Med J. 1958 Feb 1;1(5065):237–242. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.5065.237. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. SMART J., GOUGH J. The treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis with prolonged streptomycin, sodium P-aminosalicylate and isoniazid. Br J Tuberc Dis Chest. 1958 Jul;52(3):238–243. doi: 10.1016/s0366-0869(58)80138-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. TUCKER W. B. A schema for tuberculosis revisted. Am Rev Tuberc. 1958 Sep;78(3):333–345. doi: 10.1164/artpd.1958.78.3.333. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. VELU S., ANDREWS R. H., DEVADATTA S., FOX W., RADHAKRISHNA S., RAMAKRISHNAN C. V., SELKON J. B., SOMASUNDARAM P. R., SUBBAIAH T. V. Progress in the second year of patients with quiescent pulmonary tuberculosis after a year of chemotherapy at home or in sanatorium, and influence of further chemotherapy on the relapse rate. Bull World Health Organ. 1960;23:511–533. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Bulletin of the World Health Organization are provided here courtesy of World Health Organization

RESOURCES