Prevalence of Probable Drug-Induced Hepatitis following the Treatment of Tuberculosis in Kermanshah Sina Hospital (1996– 2004)

Background & Objectives: Antitubercular drugs can induce hepatic toxicity and it has still remained as a problem in treatment of tuberculosis (TB).  In this study, we defined the prevalence of antitubercular drug induced hepatitis in the patients hospitalized for TB in Kermanshah Sina hospital during the period 1994 to 2004, and also a number of probable risk factors for drug hepatitis in these cases.

Materials & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 723 patients admitted for active tuberculosis infection or drug-induced hepatitis from a data chart was retrospectively studied.  Statistical tests for analyzing the results were "chi-square" and "fischer exact test" for qualitative variables, "Z test" for comparing proportion of drug hepatitis in the age groups and "T,F tests" for comparing the mean and variance of patients with or without drug hepatitis, respectively. The level of significance was considered as 0.05.

Results: 37 patients out of 723 admitted for TB developed drug hepatitis (5.1%) that was not significantly related to sex, type of TB (pulmonary/extra pulmonary) and HBV, HCV, HIV infection.  Drug hepatitis developed in a mean of 12.4±3.3 days after beginning of antitubercular drugs. The mean age of patients developed drug hepatitis was higher than the patients without drug hepatitis (P=0.025). In the age group over 64 years old, drug hepatitis was significantly higher than the other patients (P=0.020).

Conclusion: It is recommended that in patients with tuberculosis, clinical and laboratory follow-up for drug hepatitis, especially in the early course of treatment and in the old patients, to be considered.