Hepatotoxicity During the Antituberculosis Treatment

• Main Authors: Güngör Ateş, Tekin Yıldız, Levent Akyıldız
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dicle University Medical School 2008-01-01
• Series: Dicle Medical Journal
• Subjects: Pulmonary Tuberculosis; Hepatotoxicity
• Online Access: http://4181.indexcopernicus.com/fulltxt.php?ICID=887186
• ISSN: 1300-2945; 1308-9889

The most common side effect of antituberculous treatment is hepatotoxicity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the rate of toxic hepatitis and some risk factors for the development of toxic hepatitis during antituberculosis treatment. Records of 212 patients diagnosed as smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis were analysed retrospectively. In 30 of 212 cases (14.1%) hepatotoxicity was developed. In 16 of 30 patients it was toxic hepatitis (7.5%) and the treatment was interrupted. In our study, in 6 of 151 male patients (4%) and in 10 of 61 female patients (16.4%) toxic hepatitis was seen, and it was significantly higher in females than males (p:0.002). Hepatotoxicity was seen during the first two weeks of the treatment in all of the patients. Although serum transaminase levels was reached above five times of the normal levels, we didn’t interrupt the therapy in two asymptomatic cases and by the follow up the enzyme levels returned to normal. Regarding the age, radiologic appearence and cavitary lesions on chest x-ray, there was not significant differences between patients who did or did not have toxic hepatitis. In conclusion, hepatotoxicity usually develops in the first two weeks of the treatment. We think that in the diagnosis of toxic hepatitis, symptoms of patients and progressive increasing tendency of serum transaminase levels during the follow up are more important than the only one high serum transaminase level.