[Pulmonary tuberculosis with chemotherapy related liver dysfunction]

A retrospective study of the hepatotoxicity of antituberculous drugs was undertaken to establish preventive measures for elevated transaminases by analyzing its clinical courses. Four hundred and forty six patients with normal liver function on admission were enrolled in this study. More than 50% of total 113 cases who showed abnormalities of transaminases were aggravated up to 4th week after administration of drugs, and 80% up to 8th week. The initial values of elevated transaminases did not relate to recovery rate, and could tolerate the additional administration of drugs. However, cases with higher peak values and exacerbation in transaminases showed a tendency of delayed normalization. These results indicate that the chronological observation of transaminases is useful to determine whether or not the antituberculous drugs should be discontinued when hepatic dysfunction occurs. Moreover, they suggest that patients with severe pulmonary tuberculosis may continue chemotherapy with the same regimen under careful observation of liver function even when their transaminase values exceed 100.