The incidence of drug resistant tuberculosis in 1279 Korean patients.
OBJECTIVE
In the past decade, the incidence of tuberculosis has been decreased in Korea and the nationwide survey of tuberculosis from 1965 through 1990 suggested a declining tendency of resistant organisms. But the prevalence rate of multidrug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is still a serious problem in Korea, and the aim of this study is to check the drug resistance pattern in the patients visiting University Hospital, the 3rd referral center.


METHODS
We reviewed 1279 cases (522 female, 757 male, mean age 39.4 +/- 16.7) of bacteriologically proven tuberculosis seen during the period from 1986 to 1992 retrospectively. Of 1093 patients, who were indentified in previous medical history, 454 (41.5%) had a history of prior antituberculous chemotherapy.


RESULTS
Resistance rate (resistant to 1 or more drugs) was 33.9%. Eleven percent of patients had resistance to a single drug (INH: 80.6%). Twenty two percent of patients had resistance to 2 or more drugs. Resistance rate is higher (47.4%) in the patients with a history of prior treatment than without a history (25.5%).


CONCLUSIONS
These data suggest that the high rate of multidrug resistance in Korea did not show any decreasing tendency. So, mycobacterial culture and sensitivity tests should be recommended at initial treatment of tuberculosis and potent antituberculosis drugs are strongly recommended.
Yum
H
H
Department of Internal Medicine Paik Hospital, Inje University, Seoul, Korea.
Song
Y
Y
Jeon
S
S
Choi
S
S
Lee
B
B
Kim
D
D
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015995:Prevalence; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D018088:Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology
D000995:Antitubercular Agents