Two therapies for initial treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in elderly patients: a comparative study

OBJECTIVE To investigate the efficacy and tolerance of a new chemotherapy regimen for the initial treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in patients aged more than 70 years so as to provide better treatment program for initical treatment of tuberculosis in the elclely.METHODS A total of 105 initial pulmonary tuberculosis patients aged more than 70 years were randomly divided into the treatment group and the control group,with 52 cases in the treatment group,and 53 cases in the control group.The treatment group was treated with a new chemotherapy regimen containing pasiniazid,rifapentin,and moxifloxacin,and the control group was treated with standard short-course chemotherapy regimen.RESULTS The chemotherapy completion rate of treatment group was significantly higher than that of control group(90.4% vs.54.7%,P 0.01);the sputum conversion rates at the first and second month of the treatment group were 76.6% and 89.4%,separately,while the control group were 75.9% and 86.2%(P 0.05);the pulmonary lesions apparent absorption rate and lesion improvement rate at the end of treatment of the treatment group were 74.5% and 91.5%,respectively,while the control group were 72.4% and 89.7%,the differences were not statistically significant.CONCLUSION The new chemotherapy regimen can achieve good tolerance and satisfied efficacy in the initial treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in the patients aged more than 70 years.