High Dosage Isoniazid in Original and Retreatment Chemotherapy for Pulmonary Tuberculosis: Clinical, Electrophoretic, and Bacteriological Studies

¹ The Medical Research Laboratory and Clinical Staff of the Livermore Veterans Administration Hospital.

Forty-five patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, undergoing both original and retreatment chemotherapy, received 800 mg. isoniazid and 100 mg. pyridoxine daily. The original treatment cases did well on this high dosage regimen; however, it proved to be of little value for those who had not responded to previous chemotherapy.

The physiological reaction to the disease process could generally be followed by the serum protein electrophoretic patterns. The exudative process was reflected in elevated alpha-globulins and the reparative or fibrotic processes, in high beta-or gammafractions. Low albumins accompanied such variations from the normal electrophorogram. The total protein values never varied from the normal range, at most approaching the upper limits of this range.

The observation of progressive disease in patients harboring catalase-negative, isoniazid-resistant tubercle bacilli contravenes any generalization concerning the attenuation or avirulence of such organisms.