Prevalence of Hepatotoxicity From Antituberculosis Therapy: A Five-Year Experience From South India

Antituberculosis (ATT) drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a common and serious adverse effect of tuberculosis (TB) treatment. This retrospective study was carried out to study the prevalence of DILI among patients who had received anti-TB medications and to study some of the known risk factors responsible for causing DILI.

This longitudinal descriptive study was performed to evaluate cases of DILI with predefined criteria. Patients of all ages, diagnosed and treated for smear positive pulmonary TB from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2012 and those who came for regular follow-up were included in the study. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the association of different risk factors and DILI. The confounders considered were age, sex, weight, body mass index, doses of drugs (fixed or per kg), ATT regimens (daily or intermittent), and treatment categories.

Of the 253 patients analyzed, 24 (9.48%) developed DILI. Associations of different risk factors were insignificant; including chronic alcohol consumption, hepatitis B infection, hepatitis C infection, HIV infection, and existing chronic TB.

DILI was not significantly associated with known risk factors in our settings.