[Pulmonary tuberculosis: effectiveness and tolerance of a 6-month treatment schedule using 4 drugs]

255 patients diagnosed of pulmonary and/or pleural tuberculosis are prospectively studied. All patients received four drugs: isoniazine (INH), rifampin, pirazinamide and ethambutol during the first two months of treatment. Afterwards they continued for four months with two drugs in order to complete the six month treatment period. This schedule has been effective (0.7% of failures) in 99.3% of the patients. Two relapses were detected in the 229 patients who completed the two years follow up. 72 patients (28.2%) presented clinical secondary effects due to the treatment (40 cases of cutaneous affectation, 23 of gastrointestinal intolerance and 8 arthralgias respectively). Also, hyperuricemia was detected in 83% of the patients and a high transaminases level in 42.3%. In 13 patients treatment was cancelled or modified due to the secondary effects. In summary, this schedule of treatment has proved to be effective without an important frequency of serious secondary effects which can be objectively seen in the classical schedules of 9 months with 3 drugs (INH, RF, ET), nevertheless an increased frequency of minor secondary effects were detected.