Objective: To compare the real-world effectiveness of EHRZ and FDC treatment groups on a cohort registry by investigating the sputum conversion rate and treatment outcomes of both groups.
Methods: A total of 11,489 patients' data were extracted from the Sabah TB registry between January 2012 and June 2016, including EHRZ (n = 4188) and FDC (n = 7301) patients. Then, 1:1 propensity score matching was adopted to reduce the baseline bias. Caliper matching was conducted with maximum tolerance score set at 0.001. Confounders included in the propensity score matching were gender, nationality, diabetes, HIV status, smoking status, and chest X-ray status. Successful matching provided 4188 matched pairs (n = 8376) for final analysis.
Results: In this matched cohort of 4188 pairs, the 2-month sputum conversion rate of FDC group was significantly higher than the EHRZ group (96.3% vs. 94.3%; P < 0.001) whereas 6-month sputum conversion of both groups showed no significant difference. Treatment outcomes such as noncompliance rate, failure rate, and success rate have no significant difference (P > 0.05) in both the treatment groups. There was an incidental finding of reduced death rate among FDC group compared to the EHRZ group (0.2% vs. 0.5%; P = 0.034).
Conclusion: The FDC formulation has better sputum conversion rate at 2 months compared to conventional EHRZ regime as separate-drug formulation. It was also observed that FDC has a slight protective effect against all-cause death among TB patients. This protective effect of FDC, however, still needs to be proven further.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted via retrospective review of outpatients' medical records. Details regarding ADRs were identified by a pharmacist and verified by a consultant respiratory physician.
Results: A total of 91 cases, out of 210 patients enrolled in this study, were detected with 75 patients (35.7%) experienced at least one ADR. The three most common ADRs detected were cutaneous adverse drug reactions (CADRs) (21.0%), drug-induced hepatitis (DIH) (7.1%) and gastrointestinal disturbance (4.8%). Pyrazinamide was the most common causative agent and 15.7% of all TB patients required treatment modification due to ADRs. Females were shown to have a higher tendency to develop ADRs than the males in this study (P = 0.009). The development of ADRs was shown not to affect the TB treatment outcomes (P = 0.955).
Conclusion: The incidence of ADRs in this study was high so it is important to identify the risk factors for ADRs and the individuals who have those risk factors when initiating anti-TB drugs. These individuals require special attention when anti-TB drugs are initiated.