Drug Sensitivity and Relapsed Period of Relapsed Pulmonary Tuberculous Patients registered in Some Public Health Offices, in Seoul

폐결핵 재발 환자의 약제 감수성과 재발 간격에 관한 단면 연구 - 서울시 일부 보건소 등록 환자를 중심으로

The purpose of this study was examine the general characteristics of relapsed pulmonary tuberculous patients (i.e. age, sex, weight, occupation, previous forms of treatment, drug sensitivity, and the frequency of relapse) in order to improve future treatments of tuberculosis as well as to perpetuate health education. The data was obtained from the medical records of 186 relapsed pulmonary tuberculosis patients who were registered for treatment at various public health offices in Seoul during the year of 1994. The major findings obtained from the study were as follows; 1) The male to female ratio of relapsed pulmonary tuberculous patients was about 7:3, more specifically 23.7% of the men and 30.9% of the women were between 20 and 29 years of age. 2) Comparing initial less aggravated states to relapsed states, patients with minimal X-ray findings later proved moderately advanced X-ray findings. Furthermore, patients with negative sputum AFB findings later proved positive sputum AFB findings. 3) Of the 186 patients studied, 91.9% suffered, relapse and 8.1% suffered 2 or more relapses. Of the patients who suffered at least 1 relapse, 54.8% received short-term treatment, 26.9% received long-term treatment, and 18.3% received treatment of an unknown during their initial tuberculosis treatment periods. 4) fifty five point four percent of the patients had no reaction to the drug treatment(not available), 25.9% of the patients had sensitive reaction to the drug treatment, 18.7% of the patients had resistant reaction to the- drug treatment. Drug resistance was higher in patients that exhibited positive X-ray findings as well as in patients that exhibited positive sputum AFB findings. furthermore, patients receiving treatment of an unknown nature(35.5%) exhibited higher drug resistance than those receiving short-term treatment(13.6%) and long-term treatment(17.0%). 5) Of the 160 patients who suffered relapses, 8.8% suffered a relapse within 1 year after treatment and 91.2% suffered a relapse at least 1 year after treatment. Furthermore, our study showed that women, under 30, who received short-term treatment and encounterd complications during their primary treatment suffered relapses faster than any other groups studied. In addition, minimal X-ray findings and sputum AFB findings were not correlated to the time relapse occured. Therefore, the seater efforts are needed to prevent relapsed pulmonary tuberculosis.